Women's soccer: IHCC edges Lewis & Clark

Oct. 7—OTTUMWA — Sometimes, all it takes is one.

For a team that played its third match in the span of five days, the Indian Hills women's soccer team was more than happy to walk off the field on Thursday with one goal on the scoreboard. It would prove to be plenty against Lewis & Clark as the Warriors allowed just two shots to the visiting Trailblazers, only one of which challenged IHCC freshman goalkeeper Sara Cogoli over the span of 90 minutes allowing the Warriors to walk away with a 1-0 non-conference home win.

"The girls have played quite a bit of soccer. We've been around each other quite a bit over the last six days with all the travel and all the training," Indian Hills head women's soccer coach Ulysus Torres said. "The fact that the girls were able to get through this week and go 3-0 is great. I'm proud of them for that."

Indian Hills struggled to finish offensively despite owning the vast majority of chances throughout the match. The Warriors had 13 shots against the Trailblazers, including seven on goal, but could not get a ball past Lewis & Clark freshman goalkeeper Kendall Chigas through the first 43 minutes.

Finally, entering the final two minutes, Dare Kroeten made the move that made the difference on the scoreboard. Bringing the ball down the field, Kroeten was able to keep the dribble alive as Chigas went to take the ball off the IHCC sophomore's foot.

"We do one-v-ones with the keeper all the time in training from time to time," Kroeten said. "I'm not normally one that tries to beat the keeper, but that time I felt like the touch around her is what was needed."

The touch allowed Kroeten to dribble past Chigas, leaving a wide open net in front of the Minnesota native. Kroeten easily put her 11th goal of the season into that open goal, giving IHCC a 1-0 lead with 1:58 left in the first half.

"I didn't even know how the ball went in because I wasn't even looking," Kroeten joked. "I was just making sure I wasn't offsides."

Cogoli only had to make one dive to stop a ball that otherwise might have allowed Lewis & Clark (3-7) to have a shot at tying the match in the second half, improving to 8-2 on the season in the net for the Warriors. Despite the narrowest of margins, IHCC never felt like their one-goal lead was truly in danger keeping the ball most of the final 45 minutes on their offensive half of the field.

"It was just a domination on our part," Kroeten said. "Going into the second half, we were pretty happy with everything we were doing. We didn't end up putting in more goals, but that was the talk going into the second half."

Torres was equally as happy with the effort of the Warriors, who gutted their way through a busy stretch of matches outscoring Iowa Central, Wabash Valley and Lewis & Clark 8-1 over 270 minutes in less than a week. While Indian Hills continued to get opportunities, fatigue prevented the Warriors from being able to finish those chances.

"There were definitely some heavy legs out there," Torres said. "By about the 60-minute mark, I could see there were some girls that were struggling physically out there."

Indian Hills recorded its seventh shutout of the year, the third-most in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) this year. The team's 0.78 goals-against average is tops in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) and 15th overall in the country.

"I feel like the competition is different this year, but I think it's been a little harder for us to put goals in this year," Kroeten said. "We're a team that fights for our success. I'm really happy that we've come together to continue this winning tradition. It does feel more rewarding to fight even harder to earn these wins."

After three matches over the past six days, Indian Hills (11-4) will remain idle until next week. The Warriors will host nationally-ranked Iowa Western as part of sophomore day next Wednesday at approximately 3:30 p.m.

"Iowa Western is good, but they're not invincible," Torres said. "We can beat them. We'll be ready when they come here to challenge us."

Kroeten will be one of six sophomores that will be honored prior to the match with the Reivers joining Mifumi Sasanuma, Abbie Bailey, Rebekah Gutierrez, Ikumi Okumura and Emma Zillig in playing their final regular-season home match.

"I'm looking forward to my family being back down here to celebrate the day as well," Kroeten said. "It's going to be a fun day."

— Scott Jackson can be reached at sjackson@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter@CourierScott.