Hawks bring thunder in form of five goals in sweeping final home weekend

QUINCY — There was no way to avoid the deluge Sunday’s string of thunderstorms brought, but the Quincy University women’s soccer team found a window where the rain subsided long enough to get a Great Lakes Valley Conference game played.

All the Hawks needed was William Jewell to arrive.

Despite a delay that pushed the proposed 10:30 a.m. start time back nearly 20 minutes and the Cardinals skipping a traditional warm-up before taking the field, the Hawks maintained their composure and finished their final home game of the regular season in dominant fashion.

Quincy scored with 1.7 seconds remaining in the first half and then poured three goals into the net in the second half of a 5-2 victory at Legends Stadium on Senior Day.

“Winning 5-2 is the best way we could go out,” senior forward Lauren Crane said. “I couldn’t think of a better way.”

Still, to think after playing 30 games at Legends Stadium and compiling a 17-12-1 record the last four seasons there they wouldn’t take the field again made the Hawks emotional.

“It’s very odd,” Crane said. 

But they found a way to enjoy the day, even if there were delays and weather issues.

“We were in the locker room and we did the Cupid shuffle,” senior defender Paige Anderson said. “We danced and we had fun. We got our jitters out and were ready to play.”

That was obvious. The Hawks seized the lead in the seventh minute when Aliyah Rottger scored off assists from Crane and Alaina Nasello. The Cardinals tied the game on a restart in the 17th minute, but with time winding down in the first half, Quincy’s Lexi Porchia made a run and tucked the shot between the keeper and the near post for a 2-1 edge.

Rottger, Nasello and Anderson each scored in the second half with Crane assisting on Anderson’s goal.

It made for an easy answer when asked what the best part of the day was.

“Scoring goals,” Anderson said.

The Hawks swept their final home weekend, scoring seven goals in the two games after struggling to finish in a recent stretch Quincy had scored four goals in their previous seven games. But this weekend’s outburst keeps them in the hunt for a GLVC Tournament bid.

Quincy (6-8, 5-7 GLVC) sits in 10th in the GLVC standings with the top eight qualifying for the postseason party. Quincy is two points out of eighth with two games remaining — at second-place Drury and 14th-place Southwest Baptist.

The two teams ahead of the Hawks — Missouri-St. Louis and Illinois Springfield — each play their final two games against teams already in the top seven.

“It was huge,” Crane said of Sunday’s goal outburst. “I think these five goals represent all the goals that haven’t gone our way, all the bounces that haven’t gone our way. It was huge.”

So was enjoying one final celebration on the home turf with each other.

“I made a lot of lifelong friends here,” Anderson said. “They’re going to be close to my heart.”

They’re going to push each other to the very end, too.

“They are what keep us going day in and day out, no matter what,” Crane said. “Soccer, school, everything that’s going on in your personal life, these people are what keep you going.”