ENON — The Fairborn Skyhawks and Greenon Knights boys soccer teams played an intense and physical game on Sept. 9. The Skyhawks fell to 0-8, losing by a score of 5-3 in a close, hard-fought game.

“We don’t mind the physicality,” Fairborn coach Greg Dierker said. “It was hard fought both ways.”

The game did not start physical, but by the second half there was lots of contact involved. There were multiple penalties committed and referees even handed out cards in the game.

Extra contact caused a small fight to break out halfway through the second half. Damien Beck of Greenon received a red card and Zayne Pacifico of Fairborn received a yellow card after the fight.

Greenon started fast with multiple early goals. Their first goal was launched from beyond midfield by Blake Weatherholt less than 10 seconds into the game. It was a high kick that landed in front of freshman goalie Wiley Parker and bounced over his head and into the goal.

The Knights followed that up with two more unanswered goals to go up by three. The Skyhawks managed to tack on a goal before halftime to put them down by two.

“We knew we had a slow start and gave up three quick goals,” Dierker said, “I just told them we needed to calm down and take it one goal at a time.”

In the second half, the Skyhawks appeared rejuvenated. They were much more aggressive offensively which forced a penalty inside the penalty box. They scored on the penalty kick.

After the fight, Pacifico scored with 7:53 remaining to tie the game.

However, Fairborn was unable to keep the momentum and gave up two goals in the final five minutes. The goals came less than a minute apart, despite Greenon being down a man from the red card, resulting in the final score of 5-3.

“We gave up two goals when we were up a man and that was kind of silly,” Dierker said. “We need to work hard all the way to the end.”

The Skyhawks’ next game is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12 at Greenville.