Women's soccer: Warrior women take the weekend to beat Iowa Central
Sep. 20—OTTUMWA — They were scheduled to kick things off Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
Nearly 22 hours later, the final whistle blew on the first Iowa Community College Athletic Conference women's soccer match of the season for Iowa Central and Indian Hills.
After nearly 20 hours of delays and location changes starting on Saturday and carrying over to Sunday morning, the Indian Hills women's soccer team finally prevailed taking down Iowa Central 2-1 back on IHCC Ottumwa campus field where the match was originally scheduled to be played. Showers throughout Saturday forced the match to be moved initially to Schafer Stadium, where the turf field would allow the teams to play through the rain.
Less than two minutes after kickoff, however, Mother Nature threw the two teams another curveball with lightning that persisted for several hours, forcing the match to be called off on Saturday. The match resumed back at Indian Hills on Sunday morning, played under a sunny sky throughout the midday.
"It was crazy," IHCC sophomore Abbie Bailey said. "I think we were physically ready to go. Mentally, it took a little while to catch up after everything that went on just get this match going. Fortunately, we came together and were able to pull this out. You can't go wrong with that, can you?"
Dare Kroeten and Mifumi Sasanuma each connected on a pair of goals in the second half. Freshman Sara Cogoli overcame a late-match injury that left the IHCC goalkeeper writhing in pain while the Tritons put home their only goal of the match with 6:42 remaining.
"I don't know what happened at that goal, but that definitely should not have been a goal that was allowed," Bailey said. "They (the officials) tried to tell me that I ran into my own goalie. I don't know why I would do that, but whatever they say goes."
After a scoreless first half between the two clubs, the Warriors finally broke free at the 60:31 mark. Freshman Shay Polson played a through ball towards the box that found the foot of Kroeten, who beat a defender and found an opening past the keeper for the 1-0 Warrior lead before hoisting her hands in the air in celebration of the breakthrough score.
"It was also kind of directed to my parents who drove down here from Minnesota to watch me this weekend," Kroeten said. "It was a hectic weekend, but they stayed. I really appreciate that."
Indian Hills maintained possession throughout a majority of the second half and was able to add a second goal at the 77:09 mark. Sasanuma played a corner kick into the box that deflected off a Triton defender and wound up in the back of the net for the 2-0 edge.
After the scramble in the box in the 84th minute resulted in an Iowa Central's only goal, the Indian Hills defense clamped down on the visitors over the final six minutes to earn the conference victory. Bailey intercepted a pass to the box with three minutes left, cutting down a chance for the Tritons to score the tying goal.
"Defensively, we're all there," Bailey said. "We've got English, Japanese, Columbian and Brazilian players on our back line. There's always going to be a language barrier, but our communication has been pretty good."
The Warrior defense limited Iowa Central to just eight shots on the day while the offense posted 21 strikes. On the year, the Warriors have posted a 0.69 goals against average, the 13th-best mark in the nation. Cogoli ranks 14th nationally with a 0.49 goals against average while the freshman's six wins are the second most in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA).
"We just have to keep working together as a team. We're just not as offensively explosive as we've been in recent seasons," Bailey said. "Everyone is working hard. Our goal is to find a way to win no matter how we have to do it."
Indian Hills (8-2, 1-0 ICCAC) will return to action next Sunday afternoon at home to face Iowa Lakes Community College at approximately 3:30 p.m.
— Scott Jackson can be reached at sjackson@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter@CourierScott.
