Hawks Refuse To Go Down Without a Fight Against League Leading Rebels

The stage was set for the Rebels to win and clinch their league championship at home, in front of their home crowd and at the same time celebrate “Senior Night“. A perfect way to say goodbye to the seniors, whom would be playing their last home game in front of friends and family.

However, the hawks had something else in mind. The defending league champs, whom had defeated the rebels earlier this season by the score of 3-2, were very confident and would try to take all three points away from the rebels.

The rebels would strike first in the first half, when the referee of the match would call a penalty kick. Kaylon Williams would get the call to take the penalty kick. The senior striker, placed the ball on the penalty mark, looked straight at the the hawks goalkeeper and was able to force the keeper to dive in the wrong direction and placed a perfectly stricken ball on the bottom right side of the net to make the score 1-0.

The hawks would continue to press the rebels and the match would become very physically challenging for both teams. From the beginning of the second half, Pete Knight would answer back with multiple shots from all sides of the field. A perfectly mid range shot by Jesse Aguayo would tie the score, by sending the ball out of the reach of the rebels goalkeeper and ruining the night for the rebels.

The hawks would continue to push their numbers up and the rebels were being outplayed for a good portion of the second half. with less than five minutes to go in the second half, the referee pointed to the penalty spot and the hawks would have a chance to go ahead on the score and steal all three points.

The rebels goalkeeper, Divontae Williams, would become the man of the match, by stopping the penalty and send the entire home crowd in disbelief of what they just witnessed. The energy of the crowd would be felt in the field and the rebels would have plenty of chances to score and win the match, but were unable to score.

The hawks goalkeeper, Francisco Bravo, made some huge saves, and in the process of trying to clear a cross, he collided with his own defender and Victor Jimenez, landed hard on the field without being able to break his fall. With the game still going on and the rebels trying desperately to score, the defense was able to clear the ball from danger and the referee stopped the game to get medical attention for the goalkeeper.

The game ended in a 1-1 draw. The result means that the rebels will have to win on the road in order to clinch their league championship. The rebels have two more games remaining, a win on the next game or a Palmdale loss would have the rebels claiming the title.

After the game and the senior night celebrations, Coach Rob stated, “It was a very ugly game, not a lot of soccer being played. However, I was very proud of my guys for fighting through it and all the adversity.. Divontae, became the player of the game when he saved that pk. He had a great read and I trusted in his ability to make that save. We have a very difficult game against littlerock next and we need to keep improving!”

next up for the rebels: @ Littlerock High School either on Tuesday or Wednesday @4:30 pm (game date and time to be confirmed on Monday).

Next up for the hawks: @Eastside 4:30pm (game date and time to be confirmed on Monday).

Photography by William Ortiz. Pictures will continue to upload to Dropbox folder. Over 220 pictures. Don’t forget to nominate your team’s MVP of the season.

For game pictures go to: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iq234yi128ywh4r/AAAYDLN7m2DNoJA41diH4Ggaa?dl=0