Boys soccer: York shuts out Geneva

"It feels good to get my first two goals, but I feel like, for the team, I'd rather have our team win," said Hernandez, a York junior, following the Dukes' convincing 6-0 victory over Geneva on Thursday. "I'm still happy about my goals, but obviously, I put the team first."

Hernandez, Sam Musial and Jose Herrera all scored two goals apiece. The Dukes (9-1, 1-1) took a 2-0 lead into the half and kept on scoring, despite a strong nine-save effort from Geneva goalkeeper Hayden Vostal.

"He got the monkey off of his back," York coach Jordan Stopka said of Hernandez. "He's been playing pretty well for us; he just hasn't been able to put one into the back of the net [until tonight].

"It's good for him, and hopefully, that'll be a snowball effect and he'll be scoring more goals moving forward," Stopka continued.

Hernandez admitted he stepped up on chances he "normally wouldn't take."

"My coaches were telling me to frame the goal and come from the back," Hernandez said. "I studied that more on this team and I know how to get in there now. I took that and I did it."

Musial pointed to the overall team performance.

"Big credit to our defense; they're winning every head ball," Musial said. " They're clearing the ball, moving it up. [When] we have the ball up front, we create chances. We're interconnecting and creating chances and scoring."

Geneva (2-5-2, 1-0-1) began with a 3-4-3 formation to begin the game, but quickly had to scrap it in favor of its more familiar 4-4-2 halfway through the first half.

"It looked a little better [later] in the first half. We gave bad goals up…it is what it is," Geneva coach Jason Bhatta said. "Second half, we had the run of play for 35 minutes and then we melted down for five minutes and they put three more away. It's kind of the story of our year right now. They're quality. Props to them. They play soccer well."

The Vikings were able to put some pressure and chances on net in the second half, but were ultimately unable to convert.

"It was a good game from [Vostal]," Bhatta continued. "He was going to get a lot of pressure. He got hung out to dry a couple times, but he made some good saves; kept us in the game. Damage control."

Vikings junior defender Grant Havertine is in his third year on varsity.

"With the new kids, [I'm] just trying to keep them in line and keep everyone focused," he said. "When we get scored on, we tend to get out heads down. [So], I try to keep everyone focused, keep our heads up and keep our playing at a high intensity."