Central men’s soccer team falls to Simpson
Central College
INDIANOLA — The Central men’s soccer team fell behind early and could not catch up in a high-scoring 7-3 loss to Simpson College Tuesday night.
The Dutch (5-12 overall, 2-5 Iowa Conference) finished sixth in the final conference standings and have earned a spot in the conference tournament. Coach Garry Laidlaw liked how Central played at the start of the match.
“We started the game really well,” said Laidlaw. “The first ten minutes we got in behind them, we created some chances, I thought we did really well.”
Simpson (12-8, 3-4) scored two early goals that Laidlaw thought changed the match.
“As soon as the first goal went in we got a little bit rattled,” said Laidlaw. “It took us a while to recover from that.”
The Central coach said Simpson’s success on offense was partly because of its speed.
“Simpson is a very fast team,” said Laidlaw. “One of the fastest we’ve played all year, especially on the turf. And they are extremely dangerous going forward.”
After trailing 3-0 at halftime the Dutch found some offense in the second half. Midfielder Dennis Forrest (senior, Danville, Ill.), midfielder Mark Hentschel (senior, West Des Moines, Dowling Catholic HS) and defender Calvin Bill (freshman, Hartsburg, Mo., Southern Boone County HS) all scored goals in the second half for the Dutch.
“In the second half we found some form that we haven’t seen all season going forward,” said Laidlaw. “We scored three really nice goals and we will take that into Saturday’s game.”
Laidlaw has been impressed with the play of Bill in recent games.
“Calvin has showed us something new in the central part of midfield,” said Laidlaw. “We are going to continue to look at him there. “He’s given us good energy winning balls, and I think he is really starting to mature as a freshman.”
The three goals were not enough for the Dutch to get back into the match as they allowed four in the second half. Laidlaw says the team needs to focus on defense to be successful in the upcoming conference tournament.
“Clearly we have to defend better,” said Laidlaw. “When we fell behind tonight we wanted to try and get back in the game so we were taking some risks going forward in attack and I don’t think we can afford to play as open a game on Saturday. Typically playoff games are a little bit lower scoring, so we need to address some defensive issues.”
The Dutch will play Saturday at Luther College (15-2-1, 5-2) in the conference tournament quarterfinals. The time of the match has not yet been determined. The Norse defeated Central 3-0 when the two teams played in the regular season.
