Hawks Fly By Hagerstown

The College of Southern Maryland Hawks earned their second victory of the season on September 26, winning in dominating fashion over the Hagerstown Community College Hawks by a score of 8-1.

Sophomore Maurizia Gianan got CSM off to a fast start, scoring two goals in the 11th minute to give the Hawks an early 2-0 lead. She found herself wide open in front of the goal both times, easily slotting the ball past the Hagerstown goalie for her second and third goals of the season.

Gianan then assisted on CSM's next goal when she found freshman Jennifer Nanosi open at the top of the 18-yard box, who hit a one-timer with her left foot into the back of the net to put the Hawks up 3-0 in the 28th minute.

The goals kept coming for the Hawks, as sophomore Karleigh Cohen notched her fourth goal of the season in the 29th minute on a breakaway.

Sophomore Adrianna Ward secured her first goal of the year in the 40th minute to give the Hawks a 5-0 advantage at halftime.

CSM did not take their foot off the pedal in the second half. They added three more goals, starting with Cohen's second of the game in the 52nd minute, as Nanosi provided her team-leading third assist of the season.

After Hagerstown scored in the 61st minute, Nanosi pushed CSM's lead back to six with her second goal of the game as well in the 74th minute.

Freshman Ana Benitez put the finishing touch on the scoreboard for CSM with her second goal of the season in the 87th minute.

This 8-1 result gave CSM 18 goals on the year. With seven games remaining on the 2019 schedule, they have already surpassed last year's goal total of 16.

This was CSM's second game in a row scoring six or more goals.

CSM's defense has also held up their end over the last two games. After giving up seven or more goals in each of their first four games, the Hawks have only surrendered one goal between their contests to Hagerstown and Cecil College.

With three Hawks scoring two goals in this game, CSM head coach Nina Duron said that helps prevent opposing teams from honing in defensively on one or two of her players.

"I'm actually very pleased to see we're not necessarily targeting just two [players to score]," Duron said. "It makes it a little bit more difficult for other teams looking at our stats to really figure out who they should be keeping an eye out for, so I'm really pleased with that."

Duron added that this two-game winning streak is "definitely a big confidence booster. This weekend should be a really good game as well. Kind of what they needed to get ready to go up against Howard."

The Hawks will face Howard Community College on October 2 when they travel to Columbia, Md., to take on the Dragons.