Hawken Edges West Geauga in Chagrin Division Showdown

Story by Alan Kornspan - Chagrin Valley Confernce - 9/14/22

CHESTERLAND—Evan McDaniel and Samuel Pan both scored goals in leading Hawken to a 2-1 win over host West Geauga in a Chagrin Valley Conference Chagrin Divisions showdown on Tuesday.

With the win, the Hawks improved to 3-2-3 overall and 3-0-2 in league play.

"West G is a difficult team," said Hawken coach Vlad Muresan. "We scored a goal with about five minutes left in the first half and then we scored very early in the second half. After that, we didn't have the best of performance after we went up 2-0 but having that two-goal advantage maybe made our team step back a little bit and try to protect a lead. It's normal; we had a 2-0 lead at Orange and with seven minutes left they scored their first goal and then they equalized with 25 seconds left, so I know my players and me had that experience in the back of our minds."

Defense dominated the first 30 minutes until McDaniel found the back of the net to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead heading into the break.

"I wanted the goal really badly," McDaniel said. "Coaches were telling me to use my left foot all game, so I just had to tap it in."

Samuel Pan's first goal of the season came just a minute into the second half.

"Coach during the break time told us to run outside and leave space for our midfield," Pan said. "He told us to cut in at the end, which is exactly what I did and the ball came to my foot and I just aimed for the back post and it went in."

Hawken's defense protected its lead until West Geauga's Owen Puletti converted a penalty kick with less than a minute remaining in the game.

"They got a PK at the end and made the score 2-1 but I felt we were in control of the game in the second half even though we did not play our best game," Muresan said.

The Hawks are 3-2-3 overall and undefeated for the second consecutive year in Chagrin Valley Conference play.