Central blanked in women’s soccer conference opener

Central College

PELLA — It was a disappointing Iowa Conference opener for the Central College women’s soccer team as it was overpowered by 10th-ranked Wartburg College 6-0 Saturday.

It was a dominating offensive performance for the Knights (6-0-1, 1-0 conference) as they outshot Central 34-4. They split their scoring between the halves, taking a 3-0 lead into halftime before securing the win in the second period.

“All credit to Wartburg,” said coach Mike Kobylinski. “Tiffany [Pins, head coach] does a great job over there.”

Goalkeeper Steph Hasken (junior, Davenport, West HS) made 12 saves for the Dutch, playing all 90 minutes in the box. Central was without one of its top defenders, Liz Daniels (freshman, Oconomowoc, Wis.), who sat out following two yellow cards in Tuesday’s win over Northwestern.

“I don’t think we played our best but to be fair to the players they all worked their tails off,” Kobylinski said. “It’s just one game. We learned from it and we’ll come back strong on Friday.”

Central (7-3, 0-1 conference) continues its conference schedule Friday, facing Coe College at the A.N. Kuyper Athletics Complex field at 4 p.m. It will be Senior Day for the Dutch, who will honor their four seniors, forward Kristi Klatt (Cedar Falls), goalkeeper Abby Norman (Geneseo, Ill.), defender Alex Kleis (Pella) and midfielder Lacey Merfeld (Peosta, Dubuque Hempstead HS).