Spectators huddled under the minimal shade of umbrellas with the noon sun directly overhead as the Hawks began the last game of the Nor-Cal College Showcase Weekend.

A tie against Shasta on Friday and a 3-2 win over Evergreen Valley on Saturday were just the first stops on the Hawks road to victory. With their 3-0 win over Yuba City College, the Hawks are now 3-0-3 in the league.

“Yesterday we fought hard for the game and we ended up getting a winning result,” said head coach Ron Preble. “And today we never really felt we were in danger of losing the game but at the same time they made things difficult for us at times and they’re not a bad team.”

Both teams fought hard on the field as neither was giving any room to score, their defense hard to beat. During the first half, most of the action was kept to the Hawks’ side of the pitch as freshman goalkeeper Carter Giroux warded off several shots from Yuba City.

It wasn’t until just over 27 minutes into the first half that the first goal was scored, as freshman defender Samuel De Haro, with an assist from freshman midfielder Luis Acosta, sent the ball sailing right over the Yuba City goalkeeper and into the net.

“I think the whole weekend overall we did better than average and came out with the wins, still undefeated,” De Haro said. “And today’s game we led the score early and maintained possession of the game and kept our heads up.”

In the last minute of the first half, the Hawks managed one more shot into the net by freshman defender Deondre Hamblin, with an assist by freshman midfielder Derrick Chu, bringing the score to 2-0 just before halftime.

“I think we played good as a team, early on during the season we were struggling with communication and how to get into positions,” said freshman forward Erik Tutuwan. “But as the game has gone by we tried to figure out where we’re supposed to be and we’re starting to have that team chemistry.”

As the second half began, the Hawks played a highly offensive and defensive game , keeping Yuba City on their own side of the field most of the time and blocking every attempt to score when they did get across the field.

The final goal of the game came as freshman defender Brad Burkhart  used his head to knock the ball into the net, off an assist by freshman defender Joshua Jacobs, right past the goalie sealing the 3-0 lead for the Hawks.

“We might just need to work on playing with high energy,” Tutuwan said. “Because sometimes we get tired during the game and people lose their concentration so we need to keep that higher energy up. Other than that I think we’re good, we just need to score more goals.”

After a week off, the Hawks next hit the road to take on Hartnell College, Cuyamaca and MiraCosta before returning home against Santa Rosa on Sept. 24.