Lone soccer goal sees Central men down Wartburg

PELLA — The Central College men’s soccer team got defensive Saturday afternoon against Wartburg College, smothering its opponents for a 1-0 victory.

The only goal the Dutch (11-2-2, 3-1-1 American Rivers Conference) needed against the Knights (5-6-2, 2-4-0 conference) was a strike by forward Charlie Pritchard (freshman, Ankeny) in the 23rd minute off an assist from Nick Ashton (freshman, midfielder, Ankeny, Centennial HS).

“He was able to get his foot over the top of the ball on a side angle and volley it down,” coach Garry Laidlaw said. “I think being able to hit down on the ball was key it going in because it’s a bit harder to save those balls.”

Central was outshot 12-4, but goalkeeper Andrew Mathys (senior, Elburn, Ill., Kaneland HS) made four saves, including a point-blank stop with 10 minutes remaining. He leapt up to stop a high shot and tipped it off the crossbar to keep the Knights scoreless.

“It looked pretty sure to be going in for the goal if he hadn’t gotten a finger tip on it,” Laidlaw said. He’s having such a tremendous season and is really leading us from the back.”

Trailing for most of the game, Wartburg put the pressure on the Dutch defense in the second half. The Knights had seven corners and seven shot attempts in the final 45 minutes.

“They had a succession of corners early that we couldn’t quite dig out of on our end,” Laidlaw said. “We didn’t settle the battle and much as we needed to. We can’t have any complaints because that’s a really good team that is going to have major say in the conference race.”

. Another big match awaits the Dutch on Wednesday in Indianola when they face Simpson College at 7 p.m. The Storm are 14-1-1 (4-0 conference) this season.

“They’re a senior-led team,” Laidlaw said. “It’s always tough to go in there and play. We need to get rested up because we’re going to have to be ready.”

Posted by on Oct 20 2019. Filed under College Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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