HUBBARD — In the past month, A.J. Trobek and Alvero Jordan have developed quite a relationship on the soccer pitch for the Hubbard boys team.

They demonstrated that in the Eagles’ home opener Thursday night, as Trobek scored four goals and had an assist and Jordan had a goal and two assists in a 10-2 win over Girard in Northeast-8 Conference play.

Jordan is an exchange student from Spain, who arrived a month early to begin working with his teammates.

“The team welcomed me in a good way,” Jordan said. “He introduced me to the team and it’s going very good. I came to USA early to play soccer because it is important to me and it helps me fit in.”

The Eagles, who improved to 3-2 overall and 2-1 in the league, scored three times in the first 17 minutes, as Trobek, Jacob Gulu and Chase Powell found the back of the net before Girard’s Alan Whitfield countered at the 22:52 mark.

But Trobek added two more goals before halftime as the lead stretched to 5-2 by intermission.

“The connection between myself and Alvero has been strong since he got here about a month ago,” Trobek said. “He’s very fast, talented and skilled and he’s a pleasure to play with. We’re going to get progressively better as a team and we’re looking to go further (in the Division II tournament) this year.”

The Eagles won a district title last year and reached a regional final before losing. The next step would be a trip to the state semifinal.

“That’s the main goal,” Hubbard coach Cory Reinard said. “We lost seven starters from last year and we have five regulars returning, so we knew we may take some bumps early. As long as we’re playing our best entering the final weeks of the regular season, we’ll be fine.

“The connection between A.J. and Alvero could be seen quickly, right from the start and it’ll only get better. They both have tremendous soccer IQ. But then you throw in Jacob Gulu and we’re very dangerous up top.”

Powell finished with three goals and Gulu added two. Sam Herrholtz Biro had a pair of assists.

Girard, which fell to 3-4 and 1-2, got goals from Alan Whitfield and Stephen Gamble, but was outmatched in the second half, highlighting the Indians’ depth problem.

“We began the season with 15 guys, but we have three injured and started tonight with just one sub,” Girard coach Zach Stamp said. “We were going to struggle with (Hubbard) anyway, given that they’re a strong team with numbers and reached a regional final last year. But with injuries, it makes it even more difficult.

“We’ll probably have trouble in every second half this season, despite being well-conditioned. The kids are out there trying hard and working hard and giving maximum effort. We do have some great players and we’re very young, so the future is bright.”

Powell scored the first two goals of the second half and the score remained 7-2 until the 10-minute mark when Girard was forced to play a man-down due to cramping. The Eagles tacked on the final three goals during that stretch.

John Reinard made four saves in goal for Hubbard and Jonathan Moore made five stops for Girard.