Third-straight win for Central men’s soccer squad

PELLA—After a lackluster first half, the Central College men’s soccer team woke up the offensive attack for a 2-1 victory against the University of Northwestern – St. Paul (Minn.) Wednesday afternoon.

The Dutch (3-0-0) were sluggish in the first half, only mustering nine shot attempts and yielding eight shot attempts against the Eagles (0-0-2).

“Clearly, we did not come out ready to go,” coach Garry Laidlaw said. “I thought that we were able to play and possess, but we were just playing. We weren’t competing. We have to be better than that. And we just didn’t come out to play well enough in the first half.”

Freshmen midfielders Matthew West (Pleasant Hill, Southeast Polk HS) and Nick Ashton (Ankeny, Centennial HS) connected for a goal at the 47:15 mark, West’s second goal of the season.

“I think Charlie Pritchard (freshman, midfielder, Ankeny) actually started the play,” Laidlaw said. “So you had three freshmen connecting on that goal”

Less than four minutes later, Brant Mueller (sophomore, defender, Bettendorf) headed in a free kick off the foot of Taylor Petkovich (senior, defender, Littleton, Colo., Heritage HS) to make it 2-0.

“Overall, we were pleased with the response in the second half,” Laidlaw said. “We feel like we only played 10 good minutes of soccer today. Fortunately, it was enough to get the win. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be enough later in the season.”

Andrew Mathys (senior, goalkeeper, Elburn, Ill., Kaneland HS), who was named the league’s defensive player of the week on Tuesday, picked up his third win of the year. He’s allowed just one goal in 270 minutes between the pipes.

Senior forward Ian Meentemeyer (Hartsburg, Mo., Southern Boone County HS) played for the first time this season after being sidelined by an injury and put all four of his shot attempts on frame.

The first road trip of the season will take the Dutch to Fulton, Missouri on Saturday, September 7 for a match against Westminster College at 3:30 p.m.