MEN’S SOCCER

The HU men’s soccer team left little doubt they were the aggressors in a 4-0 win over IU East (4-4-0) Saturday afternoon at Eaton High School. With this win, Huntington improves to 6-2 on the year.

The Foresters have been playing the Red Wolves since 2017 and have yet to lose. They are a perfect 4-0 and have outscored IU East 14-1.

Lawson’s crew was on the attack for the entirety of the contest but saved their scoring for the second half. Higor Barbieri and Joao Ratinho teamed up to account for all of HU’s goals.

Barbieri started things off by scoring twice within a six-minute span starting in the 54th minute. Joao needed just four minutes to log both his goals, his first a header with 20 minutes to go after which he scored on a corner in the 84th minute to put the finishing touches on a dominant Forester performance.

Both have scored five goals on the season.

The Foresters dominated possession as made clear by logging 24 shots, 15 on frame, to IU East’s six. The defense was in lockdown mode, not allowing the Red Wolves a single shot on frame. Pedro Moreira was credited with the shutout in goal. It’s Huntington’s fourth clean sheet of the season.

“I was pleased with our mentality from start to finish,” said Coach Russ Lawson. “We didn’t take anything for granted. Even though we didn’t score in the first half, we were always threatening.

“It’s great to have Higor and Joao consistently scoring for us. We also had a few guys get their first quality varsity minutes which was great to see.”

HU wraps up non-conference play on Wednesday with a home match against Manchester.