Baltimore, MD ? The Hartford Hawks men's soccer team dropped a 5-2 road decision to the UMBC Retrievers on Saturday afternoon. The Hawks are now 4-8-4 overall and finish America East play at 2-6. The loss today eliminates the Hawks from post season play. Hartford will close out its 2006 schedule on Tuesday when they host Holy Cross at Al-Marzook Field at 6:00 p.m. Prior to Tuesday's game the Hawks will honors their three senior members, Kenniel Martin, Mark Cleverdon and Andrew Peterson.
The Retrievers came into the game with a vengeance scoring four first half goals and held the Hawks without a first half point despite taking six first half shots. Steve King had a strong first performance for the America East rival with five first half saves. Four different players scored for UMBC in the first half. Matt Ward began things with a goal of assists from Kevin Mezzadra and Phillippe Bissohong with only 10:01 played. The goal came off a cross from the far left which was then blasted past Hawks keeper Matt Glaeser.
Jovan Petrovic connected with David Feazeil in the 30th minute to score off a corner kick. Andrew Gills then put another insurance goal on the board, his first of two goals in the game. His first was unassisted after winning control of a loose ball in the box. Kevin Gnatiko scored the final goal of the first half after back-to-back shots from the Hawks led to King saves. Gnatiko scored his fourth goal of the season on a second chance effort.
Glaeser finished the first half with two saves but was replaced in the second half by Cole Davidson who also recorded two saves in the game. Both of the Hawks goals came from Martin, scoring his seventh and eighth goals of the season. Martin's first came off a penalty kick just under 10 minutes into the second half. Martin then scored in the 81st minute on a through ball from Vernon Perinchief. Martin's shot cruised passed the right upright for the score.
Gillis then put an exclamation point on the game with his second goal of the game. His second unassisted goal came after winning a long ball and driving into Hawks territory scoring just inside of the left post. The Hawks finished the game with a 14-11 advantage in shots, taking a total of eight attempts in the second half. King finished the game with nine saves, five in the first half, and four in the second period. The Hawks finished with four total saves, two credited to Glaeser and two to Davidson. Hartford held an 8-4 advantage in corner kicks, while the Retrievers were called for three offside infractions and the Hawks only one.
“We had so much to play for and they had very little to play for it was very interesting what pride and heart those two factors can make a big difference,” said Dan Gaspar, head coach. In the second half we changed the team; we kept in Kenniel Martin and Pat Roy and substituted everyone else. That team, in the second half, fought very admirably, respected our institution and played with honor and pride. We are disappointed, this is not what we expected this season but there is very much that we have learned from our team and we will make the needed adjustments for next season.”
The Hawks will close out the 2006 season with a non-conference game against the Holy Cross Crusaders on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m.
