By Will Conerly

Aubrey Reis lead the 2017 squad with three goals.

Through six games played in 2018 so far, he has seven goals.

“I give the credit all to my teammates. Without them obviously, this wouldn’t be possible. They have been huge, uplifting, and telling me to be aggressive and it has been paying off so hopefully, we can keep this energy going forward, Reis said.

The sophomore Quincy native scored four goals to open GLVC Sep. 16 play where the Hawks went 1-0-1.

September 14, the Hawks played Rockhurst University, who went 13-2-2 and won the GLVC regular-season title last year.

Quincy has not beat Rockhurst since the 2014 season when Quincy went 21-2-2.  It was the first time Quincy earned a point against Rockhurst since October 4th, 2015 as the game went to double overtime resulting in a 2-2 tie.

Both of Quincy’s goals were scored by Aubrey Reis.

“It would have been huge to win against Rockhurst. We were up most of the game, unfortunate on their second goal, we missed a few chances ourselves, but either way, we went to Rockhurst and still got a tie so that was huge,” Cooper Reis said. Cooper is the senior captain and Aubrey’s cousin.

Quincy conceded a goal in the 7th minute but then Aubrey tied the game in the 13th minute, and the Hawks took the lead in the 26th minute after he also scored the penalty kick. Rockhurst scored in the 74th minute for the equalizer to cap off the scoring in the match.

Quincy took this momentum to have an offensive explosion on Sunday afternoon against Missouri S&T.

A foul by the Miners just outside the top of the box in the 41st minute allowed for a free kick.

Cooper Reis took the kick and belted a shot from 19 yards out. His shot made it past the keeper and Quincy held a 1-0 lead going into halftime.

“We were initially thinking it was going to be a direct kick so I was planning on standing over by myself, but Max came on and the ref said it was indirect so he gave me a little touch and I was fortunate enough to get it around the wall and in to the back of the net,” Cooper said.

Quincy put the foot on the gas pedal in the four-goal second half to put Quincy’s home GLVC opener to victory. 

In the 57th minute, Hayden Tucker put a shot on goal but it was deflected by the S&T goalkeeper. Tucker collected the rebound and fired another shot that went in to put QU ahead 2-1. Only a minute later, Cooper Reis scored his second goal of the game off a penalty kick after a hard foul by Missouri S&T in the box.

“Hayden’s energy was huge for us today, he was constantly running and taking on defenders, keeping the ball at his feet, and he got past his guy and he took him down and Aubrey wasn’t on so I took the penalty for us,” Cooper said.

 Aubrey Reis, scored in the 70th minute. Five minutes later he scored his seventh goal of the season from 20 yards out.

“I was just trying to be aggressive and get a shot off and I was lucky enough to have it find the back of the net,” Aubrey said.

“It’s huge. Last year we really struggled to find the back of the net. Five goals in one game, I can’t remember the last time we did that,” Cooper said.

The Hawks last scored five goals in a game in 2016 in a 5-1 win over William Jewell. Cooper had a memorable day having all three of the Hawks assists against the Cardinals. 

Through six games this season Quincy has already scored 13 goals, which was the total amount the Hawks scored during the entire 2017 season. Nine of the 13 goals have come from one of the Reis’ on the squad for the Hawks as well.

“This gives us a lot of confidence. We had a lot of players out today (Sunday) that have started multiple games for us this year, and then we had four other guys who haven’t played at all that stepped in and were huge for us,”

Anthony Binaei, Oliver Whitham, Max Van der Heijen, and Noah Henry all made their debuts at Legends Stadium in the four-goal win over Missouri S&T.

After the team failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2013 one season ago, the Quincy Hawks men’s soccer team is proving their worth. 18 players return from last year’s squad, who went 6-10.

“These two games next weekend will be just as important as last week, and now we are focused and our mindset will be to prepare for Friday,” Aubrey said.

Reis and company will have a tough challenge playing Lewis and Truman State September 21 and 23 respectively, two teams in the top ten of the United Soccer Coaches Association Midwest Regional rankings.