MEN’S SOCCER

The HU men’s soccer team put on a scoring clinic in its season opener with a commanding 8-0 win over IU Northwest (0-1). It’s just the third season for the RedHawks and their first encounter with the Foresters.

HU left little to doubt they were in charge from the opening whistle when Noah Stanford found back netting on a penalty kick within the opening three minutes of play. Less than 90 seconds later, Dodge City Community College transfer Higor Barbieri scored his first of two goals within an eight-minute span for quick 3-0 lead.

The Foresters (1-0) broke down their guests’ defense three more times in the first half with James Lighton striking next, followed by Jordan Morris scoring within a few minutes after entering the game and Eric Ocock making good on a PK after getting taken down in the box just before intermission.

Morris wasted little time upping the score to 7-0 less than a minute into the final period for his second goal of the match after which Nick Wilford put one away for the first collegiate goal of his career to wrap up the day’s scoring.

While the score was indicative of Huntington’s dominance, it was also evidenced by offensive possession with the hosts’ logging 29 shots to IUNW’s six. Fifteen different Foresters fired off at least one shot.

“This was a fantastic start to the season,” noted Coach Lawson. “You never really expect this kind of start out of the gate, but I love how we took care of business today. The tone and mentality with which we started the game was very strong and a lot of people had great games.

“I really liked the tempo and pace of our strikers. We also shorted up in the back. A clean sheet is always something to be proud of.”

Lawson’s crew scoring eight times today already totals half as many goals as the Foresters scored all of last season.  Next up is a home match against Siena Heights on Tuesday at 5:00 p.m.