Box Score By Chris Riley

Cleveland, Miss.--The Hawks travelled to Mississippi Friday to take on Delta State for the second time this season in Gulf South Conference action. Playing on extremely difficult field conditions the Hawks put in a professional display and ran out 3-1 winners.

Playing a hard working Delta State team and with conditions boggy underfoot the game was a potentially difficult one for Shorter, but one in which the Hawks came out with many positives. Both strikers Robert Ochieng and Lucas Cavenco got on the score sheet for Shorter everyone was able to see some decent playing time as the Hawks held a comfortable 3-0 lead in the final third of the game.

Shorter came out of the gates the stronger of the two sides and it took just seven minutes for them to carve out their first opportunity with neat play on the right hand side leading to a Julian Kitkowski through ball to Cavenco, who could not add the final touch. Cavenco only had to wait 7 minutes for his next chance as more good combination play from Shorter led to Ochieng finding his strike partner Cavenco with a diagonal through ball, this time he made no mistake and calmly slotted the ball between the keeper's legs for the first goal of the afternoon.

Delta State looked to corners & set pieces for their strongest chances of the game and it was off a Delta State corner that Irvin Espinal found Diego Gonzalez in acres of space down the Shorter left, his ball into the box was neatly tucked away with the outside of the boot at the front post by Ochieng, only for him to look around and see the linesman's flag raised as he celebrated.

Though Delta State created a good chance for themselves with 8 minutes left in the half it was Shorter who came in at half time the happier of the two teams. Shorter knew in the second half they would need to continue their momentum and find another goal in order to kill off the game, though it was Delta who had the first chance of the half, striking the crossbar with just 9 minutes to go. From there on in it was all Shorter.

Scott Bissett and Kyle Stonecipher dictated the play from midfield and Gonzalez again excellent down the left hand side and it was his corner kick met by Ochieng that put breathing room between the two sides fifteen minutes into the second half.

Ochieng scored his second goal in as many minutes as he was played in down the Shorter right, cutting back inside his man he coolly slotted the ball into the back of the net with his left, and proceeded to slide 10 yards on his knees on the drenched field. 

The third goal effectively ended the game as a contest and with 15 minutes to go head Coach Paulo Neto was able to give some vital collegiate experience to his bench, who have been knocking at the door all season.

Though the players on the field changed the level of play did not and the Hawks continued to go forward, with Espinal seeing his 25 yard shot strike the post with ten minutes left to play.  Andrew Behrman stepped onto the field and gave a solid performance at the back in his first appearance in a Shorter uniform, while Iegor Santos was dangerous going forward.

Delta State did manage to grab a consolation goal with 89:30 on the clock, but it did not put a damper on what was a good all round performance for the Hawks.

Shorter improves to 7-4-2 on the season and now travels to Memphis, Tennessee to take on Christian Brothers this Sunday in another conference match. Game time is set for 4:30pm.