On Tuesday night, the Red Elephants learned that they can't let up for even one second against top opposition, as visiting Mill Creek dealt the defending Class AAA champs their first loss since the 2009 campaign in a 2-0 finale at City Park.
Despite controlling much of the contest, the top-ranked Red Elephants gave up two second-half goals to Mill Creek -- both on counter-attacks -- as the Hawks took advantage of two sloppy moments from the Gainesville defense.
"That's what games like these are for," said Howard, who scheduled a tough non-region slate for the Red Elephants (2-1). "In the long run games like these will be positive because of what we'll learn from them.
"Right now, we've got a little bit of work to do, and we've got to get rid of some of the simple mistakes."
Gainesville's first real error came just two minutes into the second half, when Mill Creek pounced on a botched clearance from the Red Elephants defense. Taking the ball on the left flank, the Hawks' Collin Robinson chipped a perfect cross for teammate Taylor Scalera, who volleyed a shot into the Gainesville goal from six yards.
The strike touched off a period of dominance from Mill Creek, as the Hawks pushed Gainesville off the ball and dictated play for much of the following 15 minutes. But the Red Elephants collected themselves and began to reassert control midway through the second half.
Yunis Yanes came within inches of pulling Gainesville even with 24 minutes remaining, but Mill Creek goalkeeper Conner Buckley came up with a spectacular save to deny the Gainesville striker, diving to his left to push Yanes' close-range header wide. Seconds later, Yanes watched in agony as another shot -- this one beating Buckley -- missed the mark from just outside the Hawks' penalty area.
Red Elephants midfielder Aidan Reising carved out another close call with 19 minutes remaining, running on to a pass and blasting his effort over the goal from 18 yards.
But even with Gainesville in the ascendency, Mill Creek kept fighting, and the visitors' hard work paid dividends with 16 minutes left, as another counter-attack doubled the Hawks advantage.
This time Chris Eaton charged down a pass that the Gainesville defense assumed was headed out of bounds for a throw-in. But Eaton kept the ball in play and charged into the Red Elephants penalty area before squaring a pass for Mac Sinclair, who sidefooted a shot into Gainesville goal from 12 yards.
"I think both of their goals took something away from us," Howard said. "The way they developed really took the wind out of our sails."
The Red Elephants battled to the end and nearly broke through three minutes from the final whistle, as forward Christian Gomez beat the Mill Creek offside trap and bore down on the Hawks goal. But Buckley again rescued the visitors, pushing Gomez's chip shot on to the crossbar. The ball stayed alive in the Mill Creek penalty area, but Buckley jumped up to challenge Yanes for possession, crashing into the forward in the process. Appeals for a penalty were denied, and the Hawks defense cleared the danger.
"You've got to give all the credit to Mill Creek; they're a great team, and they played well tonight," Howard said. "But we'll learn from this and move on. The sun will come up tomorrow, and we'll live to fight another day."
The Red Elephants took the fight to Mill Creek early, as Gainesville's midfield and attack kept the Hawks defense under constant pressure.
Reising, Douglas Mejia, Ricardo Gomez and Nathan Dillard combined incisive passing with quick runs off the ball to hold possession and create a number of scoring opportunities. But Buckley proved up to every shot on target, and the Red Elephants also wasted some openings, including off-target attempts from Reising, Mejia and Gomez.
Meanwhile, the Red Elephants defense effectively handled Mill Creek's counter-attacks behind solid play from Charlie Bryant and goalkeeper Edgar Espinoza, who came up with two saves in the first half. But the Hawks continued pressing, and it only took two mistakes to make the difference.
Gainesville will look to bounce back Friday when it travels to face Stephens County in its Region 8-AAA opener.
"We're getting better, but we've got some work to do," Howard said.
Gainesville's Jamie Mattick, right, beats Mill Creek's Mac Sinclair to the ball on Tuesday night in Gainesville.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2011/2/236407