Herndon Boys Stomp Rival Seahawks in Season Opener

The Herndon Hornet boys soccer team (1-0) had beaten archrival South Lakes (0-2) for the past three years. And while becoming comfortable on their new turf field, South Lakes hoped to take advantage playing at home on natural grass.

As it turned out, the surface had no ill effect on Herndon as they prompted a heavy attack on the Seahawks Friday night and scored three goals to blank South Lakes and hand them a 0-2 start.

After a Salah Warid goal put Herndon up 1-0 in the first half, Patrick McLaughlin got hot for the Hornets and put one past Cronin from 7 yards out with 25:25 left in the regulation to stretch the lead to two.

Nine minutes later, a Hornet shot ricocheted off the left post 15 yards back to McLaughlin who then proceeded to bend it inside the post for his second goal of the game.

“I was not in soccer shape yet and I came in with not even two days off and ran right into soccer,” McLaughlin said. “I got a great ball through by Danny [Alvarado] and knotted it by the keeper. We’re a good team—we have a few kinks to work through but we should be working for the district title.”

Herndon’s Sam Eaddy cleared out the majority of balls on defense for the Hornets and set up his midfielders with precision through-balls up field.

“The first game of the season you always want to come out hard and it being South Lakes made us even try harder,” Eaddy said. “We’re a small team but we have good chemistry, good foot skills, we know each other pretty well and playing together [actual game] makes it better.”

Seahawk Suliaman Dainkeh provided his team with a much-needed spark throughout the match. Dainkeh tackled well, intercepted Hornet passes at midfield, and sent some beautiful through balls deep down field for his forwards. But the timing and chemistry between the players never quite gelled for the Seahawks.

“They [Hornets] were really good on the ball, very technical and they know what to do with the ball. They have great players up top with Patrick McLaughlin,” Suliaman said. “In the second half we wanted to push it but unfortunately they got in the one goal and that killed us. We just have to keep developing and get better every day.”

Up by three, Herndon settled into a defensive scheme for the last 15 minutes to insure the shutout. Still, the game remained physical and frustration set in and a fight broke out after a sideline collision between a Herndon player and a Seahawk. The South Lakes player received a red card for throwing a punch and was consequently ejected from the game.

South Lakes head coach Martin Pfister felt things became too heated because of the long time rivalry between the teams but said he does not condone that type of behavior from his players.

“We had to calm down at halftime, went back to what we wanted and in the first 20 minutes we were getting a good attack in. But it started getting physical and the play just stopped, as far as soccer because both teams were just hitting each other.”

Overall, Herndon’s precision passing, speed and accuracy proved too much for the Seahawks. Still, Herndon head coach Sean Lanigan said there are still areas he would like improved.

“Right now we’re working on our speed of play. We are used to playing on the turf field and this is the first time we’ve actually stepped on grass,” Lanigan said after the first half. “I thought we are doing really well, moving the ball but we need to play the third man running because we are not seeing options beyond.”

Herndon plays at Chantilly at 7 p.m. on March 22.