Spencer, Ia (Northwest Iowa Now) – The Iowa Lakes Men’s and Women’s Soccer teams hosted Hawkeye on Wednesday afternoon at the Northwest Iowa Soccer Field.
In the Women’s game, neither team could get a great look at the goal through the first 35 minutes. The Red Tails got a few decent looks on free kicks, but Laker Keeper Holly Poole had a strong performance in the first half to keep it scoreless.
The Lakers broke the ice when Ines Balaghni hit Chanell Makusu with a pass which the sophomore cashed in on with the matches first goal.
Iowa Lakes took that lead into the locker room, controlling about 35 of the first half’s 45 minutes of play.
It didn’t take too long in the second half for the Red Tails to get their first goal as Grace Lea broke free on a runout and slipped the ball past Poole to tie the match at 1.
Iowa Lakes got the lead back quickly as Emma Fournie hit a penalty kick in the matches 51st minute to make it 2-1.
Laker Sophomore Amalee Prie talked about some of the halftime adjustments made by Iowa Lakes.
Iowa Lakes made it 3-1 when Zoe Lawrence put together an impressive series of moves before slipping a pass to Miu Kamei who knocked it in.
Much of Iowa Lakes’ offensive success started with the distribution coming from Center Midfielder Stina Mathews. Mathews, a Sophomore from Germany, told Northwest Iowa Now what she is looking for from her teammates.
Iowa Lakes picked up the 3-1 win, now taking 1st place in the ICCAC and will look to take the regular season title when the travel to Fort Dodge to play 15th ranked Iowa Central on Wednesday.
The Iowa Lakes Men played Hawkeye later that afternoon. Hawkeye is a team that has delt with a lot of very close losses to good ICCAC opponents this season, and it looked like they were going to give the 9th ranked Lakers all they could handle through the first half.
Iowa Lakes scored first when Sharif Nata N’Tcha broke away for a goal just before the 10th minute.
Less than 30 seconds later, Jugene Wessels tossed a brilliant pass from a touchline throw-in to Santiago Martin who knocked it in to make it 2-0 in favor of Iowa Lakes.
It looked like Iowa Lakes was ready to run away with it, but in the 16th minute, Brody Pawley of Hawkeye led Luke Hobson on a free kick for a header to make it 2-1.
In the 36th minute, Hawkeye tied it up when the Red Tails got a few bodies behind the Laker defense.
It was an all-around messy first half, 5 cards were handed out, two yellows to each side and a red to Hawkeye. The teams went to the locker rooms tied at 2.
Iowa Lakes Captain Jeremy Koppie said it was an urgent locker room.
The Lakers came out with some fire in the second half. Renato Gonzalez linked up with Sam Macauley for a goal, giving Iowa Lakes a 3-2 lead.
That lead was extended in the 55th minute when Rayan Perrot-Bouziyane found his French Countryman Florent Lefebvre in front of the goal with a pass that Lefebvre ripped past the Red Tail Keeper to make it 4-2.
Iowa Lakes’ Emmanuel Benazra covered a ton of ground in the 77th minute before launching a kick from 25 yards away past the keeper, making it 5-2.
That score would hold for the final 18 minutes, and Iowa Lakes picked up their 3rd straight win to improve to 8-5-2 on the year and 5-2 in the ICCAC. Up next for Iowa Lakes is a road trip to Marshalltown on Saturday. Ben Musengo talked about Iowa Lakes Potential heading in to the regular season’s final week.
