Sizzling Central men’s soccer squad wins fourth straight match

Central Dutch Athletics

Central Dutch Athletics

PELLA — For the first time this season, the Central College men’s soccer team has a winning percentage over .500 after winning its fourth straight contest by knocking off Nebraska Wesleyan University 2-1 on Saturday.

The win puts Central (7-6-0, 4-1-0 conference) in a three-way tie for second in the American Rivers Conference standings. The Prairie Wolves (6-8-0, 1-5-0 conference) are in eighth.

“I was really pleased with the second half,” coach Garry Laidlaw said. “We did what we needed to do to salt the game away.

“I was very impressed with Nebraska Wesleyan. We knew looking at their results this year that they’ve been a tough out for everyone. That’s a worthy team, we’re glad to have got the win today.”

In the 12th minute, forward Miguel Pina (senior, Chicago, Ill., Taft HS) got his head on a corner kick volley from Zach Worster (freshman, midfielder, St. Peters, Mo., Saint Dominic HS) for his sixth goal of the season.

“Miguel is always in and around the action,” Laidlaw said. “These teams know him and we know he’s going to get some attention. He took his goal well, a real clinical header.”

Senior Aroni Niyikiza (forward, Cedar Rapids, Washington HS) tallied his first goal of the season on an unassisted effort.

“He just outmuscled his man,” Laidlaw said. “There was a flick-on off a throw-in. He was able to turn his man at the top of the box and fire it into the roof of the net.

“Aroni created the winning goal against Dubuque and then scored the winning goal today. I could not be happier for that young man.”

Between the pipes, keeper Salvador Salado-Herrera (sophomore, Brooklyn Park, Minn., Park Center HS) got the win despite allowing a goal for the first time since September 22. He had held opponents off the scoreboard for the last 342 minutes.

“He had a couple of tricky saves to make,” Laidlaw said. “We’re getting what we need from him at the right time of the year.

“We didn’t need that goal to go in, it made things a little tighter than we would have liked. At this point in the season, it’s all about the result.”

Central will play at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

Posted by on Oct 14 2018. Filed under College Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed

         

Search Archive

Search by Date
Search by Category
Search with Google
Log in | Copyright by Oskaloosa News