Central women headed to conference soccer tournament

PELLA — Needing a positive result to qualify for the American Rivers Conference tournament, the Central College women’s soccer team left no doubt in a 5-0 throttling of Nebraska Wesleyan University Tuesday afternoon.

The Dutch finish the conference season at .500 (3-3-2) and 9-5-3 overall. The Prairie Wolves drop to 6-8-1 (2-6-0 conference) on the year.

“This was 90 minutes of our brand of soccer,” coach Mike Kobylinski said. “When you’re able to do that heading into the conference tournament, you have a good felling.”

For the third time this season, Grace Coates (sophomore, forward, Marion) had a multi-goal performance with her first-half brace. Both of her goals were assisted by Amber Santana (sophomore, forward, Indio, Calif., Shadow Hills HS). Santana had a goal of her own in the second half and was assisted by Coates.

“They just click well,” Kobylinski said. “Amber finds Grace on runs. She sees the field well and can split a team when she’s given the time. Grace had some beautiful finishes and really hard runs.”

Paige Cahill (junior, Castle Rock, Colo., Castle View HS) tied the school record with her 10th assist of the season on an Abby Frey (junior, Mesa, Ariz., Desert Ridge HS) goal 18 minutes in. Cahill scored unassisted in the 47th minute.

“Paige hit one of the best shots of the season,” Kobylinski said. “A lot of people contributed in the attack and when we do that we are tough to stop.”

It was the ninth shutout of the season for the Dutch as Sheila Horstmann (senior, goalkeeper, West Des Moines, Valley HS) made seven saves in goal.

“Credit to our defense,” Kobylinski said. “I’m really pleased to get another shutout and it was a total team effort.”

Central clinched a spot in the American Rivers Conference quarterfinals, which will take a place on Saturday. The sight and opponent are to be determined pending other results from around the American Rivers Conference Tuesday.