MONTEREY — Elijah Hanley was ready for anything.
“I just want to score one,” the Hawks’ sophomore midfielder said. He had been waiting for his first goal of the season. No matter what it took, he was determined to get one.
He just needed to use his head. Literally.
A clean chip from freshman defender Haku Kremer in the first half on the road against Monterey Peninsula somehow found Hanley’s noggin. He bounced it off his dome, past the keeper and into the net — and his wish came true. But what he didn’t know was that moment, in LPC’s 9-1 win over the Lobos, would design the blueprint for a game-changing play for the rest of the season.
Hanley has been bouncing from left to right to center throughout the season.
“He’s a very versatile player,” head coach Andrew Cumbo said. “He’s a great athlete. He’s a great soccer player. He’s got a lot of versatility to his game, so he can do a good job in the midfield, as a defensive midfielder, and he’s done a good job at center back. He lacks experience there, but he did a good job in the times he was there. And he also has done a couple things on the wing.”
Hanley came from a short run at Delta College, where he felt out of place.
“I’ve been learning a lot coming from Delta, my first year, and I wasn’t seeing the field as much as I wanted to,” Hanley said in an interview at the start of the season. “If I’m gonna be completely honest, this is actually one of my best years of soccer I’ve ever had. The way I feel with my teammates, the way I’m performing, my mindset, I’ve just been learning a lot.”
Back to Hanley’s first goal. Cumbo did not see it as a lucky play. He saw it as a strength and skill he could use for the team’s future. He designed a play to get Hanley to use his head again. After practicing the play, it worked in the Hawks next game, at home against Cabrillo.
A clean chip from freshman midfielder Kayke Carneiro met Hanley’s head perfectly. The Hawks lost 2-1 to Cabrillo. But Hanley scored Las Positas’ lone goal in the 30th minute of the first half.
“It’s just a strong suit that I have,” Hanley said. “They realize I jumped high and I went with headers, and they started letting me go up there.”
This new strategy shows that Cumbo is a coach who sees everything. He observes teammate chemistry, his players’ skills, and, most importantly, what can get this team through their upcoming playoff run.
After Hanley moved positions all year, Cumbo has found a gem of a skill — his vertical leap, his timing and his creativity.
“He’s been pretty good in the air,” Cumbo said. “He just kind of gave us a different look that we hadn’t seen from him. … Not a lot of players have that skill or that ability.”
The Hawks are coming up on some tough teams in this year’s upcoming playoff run, and they need to pull out all the stops. This strategy has proven itself fruitful — it’s only right to proceed with it.
“We’ve been trying to target him in the air since Monterey,” Cumbo said. “We’re going to continue to try to use that to our advantage. And you know, as we get closer to the postseason play, we’ve got to continue to develop and be dangerous in different areas. So if we can continue to kind of ride that moment with him, that would definitely be helpful for the team.”
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TOP PHOTO: The Las Positas men’s soccer team celebrates Elijah Hanley’s quick header. This is his second goal of the season, both being headers. (Photo by Alan Lewis/ Special to The Express)
Annie Moore is the Sports Editor of The Express. Follow her on X @SanJosAnnie.
