On Monday, October 21st, the Hawks traveled to Flushing Meadow Park to face off against the High School for Arts & Business Bulls in their final game of the season. Going into the game the Hawks knew that they either had to win or tie in order to make the playoffs. The Hawks couldn’t win or tie, as they lost 2-0 to the Bulls.
The Hawks were coming off a great win vs. the Robert F. Wagner Jr. Panthers at Francis Lewis High School. They won 1-0 as junior goalie Minhaj Rahman posted a shutout and sophomore Tiarnan Mathers got the game’s only goal in the second half to keep their playoff dreams alive.
However this was not meant to be against the Bulls, as the Hawks were overmatched against the division leader. The Bulls scored a goal in each of the two halves, putting the Hawks at a deficit that they could not overcome. In the first half, the Bulls capitalized on a mistake that occurred after the defense got mixed up with Minhaj, allowing the Bulls to score and take the 1-0 lead going into the second half. In the second half, the Bulls again took advantage of a Hawks’ miscue when they took control of the ball by the Hawks’ net and scored, taking a commanding 2-0 lead. The Hawks just couldn’t mount up enough offense to score a goal, leading to their defeat. When the final whistle blew, the Hawks knew that not only their regular season was over, but that their playoff hopes were also gone.
Tiarnan said, “It wasn’t the team that we normally come out with and we paid the price and it cost us the playoffs.”
Minhaj said, “We had one silly mistake at the beginning of the game which brought us down 1-0 and it was hard to fight back from there.” Minhaj had ten saves in the Hawks’ final game. He has an 82% save percentage in the season with 98 saves this year.
Throughout the season, the Hawks had many ups and downs as they were never able to start a multiple game winning streak. Minhaj summed up the Hawks season by saying “Some days you have good games and some days you don’t.”
The Hawks finished the season with five wins, six losses, and two ties for a total of 17 points to finish in fourth place in the Queens B III Division. Sophomore Branco Montero led the Hawks in number of goals, with six goals in the season, and senior captain Daniel Yacar led in number of assists, with three assists in the season.
The Hawks will be losing 12 seniors this season including the captains so there will be many people who will need to take larger roles next year.
The Hawks could not have gotten to where they are without Coach Matthew Curiale leading the way. Coach Curiale led the Hawks to one of their best seasons in the past four years, however, the playoffs still alludes the team.
Although they fell short of their goal of making the playoffs, it was an exciting season for the Hawks. It was also a stark improvement to the boys season last year, when they had two wins, 10 losses, and two ties.
