Central settles for women’s soccer draw

PELLA – Remaining unbeaten in the American Rivers Conference, the Central College women’s soccer team tied Wartburg College 1-1 Saturday.

Central (11-1-1, 3-0-1 American Rivers Conference) had its nine-game winning streak ended by Wartburg (6-5-3, 1-2-1 conference) but the Dutch still gained a point in the league standings with the draw.

“This was a tough week playing Dubuque and Wartburg,” coach Mike Kobylinski said. “We came away with four points on the week and are still undefeated in conference play.”

After being outshot by the Knights 11-4 in the first half, the Dutch flipped the script by outshooting them 11-4 in the second half.

“We didn’t do enough in the first half to decide the outcome, and we were chasing the game a bit,” Kobylinski said. “In the second half we felt we had the run of play and some good chances after making adjustments.”

Rylee Rustad (senior, Gilbert, Ariz., Casteel HS) got Central on the board in the 53rd minute. She found a loose ball in the box after Olivia DeVos’s (junior, Altoona, Southeast Polk HS) shot attempt was saved and buried it for a 1-0 lead.

Wartburg equalized less than 10 minutes later for the game’s final score line of 1-1.

Dutch goalkeeper Zoey Sizemore (senior, Omaha, Neb., Mercy HS) made eight saves.

Central has a 5 p.m. match Wednesday at Buena Vista University.