Hopkinton boys soccer cruises to win over Monadnock
HOPKINTON – It wasn’t the most polished game Scott Zipke has ever seen his Hopkinton High boys soccer team play but his Hawks still earned a 6-0 home triumph over Monadnock on Wednesday.
Zipke would have liked to see his offense spread the Huskies out more and play more to the outside. He felt Hopkinton dribbled into the middle of the field too much and settled for less-than-threatening long shots on several occasions.
Though he said the Hawks still have plenty to work on, Zipke admitted there were a few positive takeaways from the victory.
“It’s good to score six goals anytime and to get a shutout but hopefully this is an early-season game and we’ve got a lot more where this came from,” Zipke said.
Hopkinton (2-0) had a 4-0 lead at halftime thanks to two goals from Max Rossignol and one each from Gerry Donahue and Joe Cullinan.
Donahue opened the game’s scoring in the seventh minute when he scored on a low shot into the right corner from inside the penalty area.
Rossignol followed up with two goals of his own, both from the top of the 18-yard box, between the 17th and 22nd minutes. The junior midfielder’s first tally landed in the top left corner of the Monadnock net. Rossignol’s second went into bottom right corner on a low shot.
Cullinan capped the Hawks’ first-half scoring in the 26th minute when his low shot from about 20 yards out slipped through hands of a diving Clay Coffman, Monadnock’s freshman goalkeeper.
Junior Nick Boucher relieved Coffman in net after Cullinan’s tally. Boucher is one of Monadnock’s six upperclassmen on its 15-man roster.
Huskies coach Tom Zaluki thought his team executed the game plan of packing it in and playing defensively well in the first half. What hurt Monadnock (0-2) was not scoring on one of its early offensive possessions and its inexperience in goal, he said.
“I look at it this way: on a perfect day, maybe we can get a draw from (Hopkinton) but we’re too young to play perfect,” Zaluki said.
Hopkinton has scored 11 goals over its first two games. The Hawks tallied a 5-1 road triumph over Hillsboro-Deering in their season-opener Monday.
“In a way, it’s good over the first two games to see that your strikers are putting the ball in the back of the net,” Zipke said.
Donahue and junior Azarius Meister provided Hopkinton’s second-half goals in the 76th and 80th minutes, respectively.
The Hawks outshot Monadnock, 16-1. The Huskies’ lone shot on goal came in the 31st minute on a free kick. Hopkinton had four corner kicks. Monadnock did not earn a corner.
The Hawks played well enough to win Wednesday but Zipke’s focus is on what his players can learn from the game and less on the score.
“Certainly, we can play a lot better than what we had today, which I guess is what you want out of Game 2,” Zipke said.
