On a picture-perfect day for soccer, the Hunter College Hawks took home a picture-perfect victory over CUNYAC rival Baruch College on Wednesday afternoon. Five different Hawks scored to lead the team to a 5-1 win, with Keeper Matthew Heimowitz making 9 saves, allowing Hunter to remain unbeaten in conference play at 3-0-1.

Senior Bradley Espejo continued to shine with a goal and an assist, but coach Dan Cinelli talked about his play that doesn't show up on the stat sheet. "He was a monster all over the field, gaining possessions, maintaining possession, and just leading us to victory." In the 8th minute, Espejo tracked down an errant clearance by the Baruch keeper and put the ball in the back of the net for his 7th goal of the year.

For the next 30 minutes, the two teams traded possessions and chances, pushing long balls through the defense, but no one connected. Coach Cinelli made a lineup adjustment, subbing senior Manjiro Nishimura, and within two minutes of game play, he put a through ball on the foot of Saleel Eldin, who beat everyone to the ball and gave the Hawks a 2-0 lead. Espejo was not done collecting points on the day when he crossed the ball into the box to find the head of Freshman Kristopher Lage. Lage's second goal of the season gave the Hawks a 3-0 lead.

At the start of the second half, Baruch turned up the pressure and dominated possession, but Hunter answered with another well-placed pass, allowing Freshman Rafael Villacres to score his first collegiate goal and give Hunter a 4-0 lead. Baruch continued to charge and scored a goal in the 67th minute, cutting the lead to 4-1 but got no closer. With time running out, Bassrou Juwara gathered a deflection and scored the final goal of the match and the first of the year for him, giving Hunter a 5-1 victory.

Matthew Heimowitz and the defense stood tall all afternoon. The keeper was very effective coming off his line to aid the defense in controlling the long passes from Baruch. Heimowitz had 9 saves on 22 shots faced, only allowing the solitary goal. Hunter will travel to Brooklyn on Friday afternoon to take on Medgar Evers at 4 pm at Aviator Sports Complex!