Hawks Held Scoreless by Raptors

The College of Southern Maryland Hawks lost to the Montgomery College Raptors on September 10 by a score of 7-0. 

Freshmen Justin Miller and Logan Miller were the only Hawks to record shots on goal - Justin had two, Logan had one. 

Freshman goalkeeper Jared-Lee Pixton made 12 saves during his 90 minutes in the net. 

CSM head coach Zach Bowman said, "Today's a good representation of what college soccer is about. It's physical, it's strong, it's fast, it's emotional, and that's something [the Hawks] are going to have to rise to at some point."

CSM has struggled through a tough stretch in their schedule the past couple of weeks. Montgomery had been ranked No. 12 in the NJCAA Division I rankings released on September 3 before losing twice last week. Their losses came against CCBC Essex and Mercer County Community College, who both appeared in the nationals rankings this year as well.

On September 3, the Hawks lost 4-0 to the Frederick Community College Cougars, who were in the "Others Receiving Votes" category of the Division I preseason poll.

In between their games against the Cougars and the Raptors, the Hawks were handed a narrow 1-0 defeat on the road by the Harford Community College Fighting Owls.

Bowman said his team is handling the losses "the best they can at the moment. They're frustrated, they're angry, which is a good thing. That means they know they can play better than what they're showing at the moment."

To improve going forward, Bowman said the most important thing his team needs to focus on is "following through with our game plan and making sure we're doing it. We made things a lot harder on ourselves by not following through with that, so if we can stay focused on that, the outcome and success will be a little bit higher."