Spencer, Ia (Northwest Iowa Now) – The Iowa Lakes Men’s and Women’s Soccer teams continued their ICCAC Campaigns on Wednesday at the Northwest Iowa Soccer Field, hosting Central.
The Iowa Lakes Women have had to deal with one of the country’s toughest schedules up to this point, coming in to Wednesday’s match 0-4-3 on the season.
The Lakers only allowed one shot in the first half, but Central’s Leah Dunstan scored on that shot to make it 1-0 in the 37th minute.
Eva Barrett got the Raider’s only shot off in the 2nd half, but she also capitalized on the rare opportunity, scoring in the matches 49th minute to give Central a 2-0 lead.
The Raiders would hold that 2-0 lead through the remainder o the match. Iowa Lakes had 6 shots on goal, all denied by Central Keeper Jodie Stanway.
Laker Coach Mukwah Ogitchida was frustrated with Iowa Lakes’ execution of the gameplan.
Iowa Lakes continues their search for their first win on the season with the 2-0 loss. They will be back in action against Northwest Iowa on Saturday in Spencer.
The Iowa Lakes Men came into Wednesday 5-0-3 on the year and 1-0 in ICCAC play. Central, ranked 17th, was 4-2-1 and 0-0-1 in the ICCAC.
The Raiders struck first, with Marlon Reichelt scoring on an attack started by Deshawn Evans in the 8th minute. Evans was causing some issues for the Laker defenders early on, but Iowa Lakes was able to shut him down for the remainder of the match. Iowa Lakes keeper Alfie Venners talked about the challenges Evans presented early.
Iowa Lakes tied the match at 1 in the 29th minute on a Denis Ssemuju goal assisted by Sharif Nata N’tcha. That made the score 1-1 going in to the locker room.
The second half was all Lakers. Gavario Bester gave Iowa Lakes the 2-1 lead in the 48th minute on another goal assisted by Nata N’tcha.
Jose Velasquez found Jugene Wessels on an attack and score to extend that Iowa Lakes lead to 2.
Gavario Bester hit a late goal for the Lakers, assisted by Miguel Prieto, giving us our final score of 1-0.
Iowa Lakes dominated possession throughout, but especially in the 2nd half, where they got 12 shots off to Central’s 2. Nata N’tcha said a strong locker room message helped lift the Lakers in the 2nd half.
Iowa Lakes improves to 6-0-3 on the year and 2-0-0 in the ICCAC. The Lakers have played well against a tough schedule, but Fred Kim still sees room for improvement.
Northwest Iowa will be in Spencer on Saturday for Iowa Lakes’ next matchup as the Laker Men try to stay unbeaten on the year.
