OTTUMWA —
Doug Seigle isn’t one to sugarcoat how the first half of the Indian Hills soccer seasons have gone.
“It’s been a frustrating year so far. There’s no doubt about that,” Seigle said. “We’ve been shorthanded because we’ve had to hold some players out and we’ve had some players banged up.”
“It’s been tough to get anything going this year,” Seigle said.
Saturday’s opponent certainly didn’t help those matters. Iowa Central, armed with a pair of highly-rated 11-1 squads, made their first trip to IHCC’s on-campus soccer field a successful one, as the 11th-ranked Triton women scored a 9-0 win while the sixth-ranked Iowa Central men added a 5-0 shutout against the Warriors.
“It would have been a challenge for either team to compete against two teams like the ones Iowa Central have on any given day,” Seigle said. “We had a better result this time around then we did when we played them in our first conference game, but we just couldn’t get off to the starts we would have needed.”
In both matches, the Tritons struck for four goals in the first half and never looked back. In the women’s match, IHCC tried to keep Iowa Central off the scoreboard in the second half, but three goals in a five-minute span highlighted a five-goal second half surge for the 12-1 Triton women.
“I thought the women fought them as hard as they could. We just don’t have the athletes to compete with a team like that,” Seigle said. “We just have to clean up some of our mistakes, but Iowa Central does that to great women’s teams. They make other ranked teams look bad.
“As we got tired, we made mistakes and Iowa Central broke through. That’s what makes them a great team.”
The men’s match saw much more competitive action on Saturday with Indian Hills getting several chances throughout the match to score. Unfortunately for Seigle, the 12th different starting lineup in the Warriors’ 14th match led to uncertainty on the pitch that allowed Iowa Central to put four straight goals on the board before halftime.
“This was another one of those games where we had to adjust to the lineup due to injuries,” Seigle said. “It took us awhile to get used to each other and it got us in a big hole.
“We made some adjustments at halftime and fought harder, but it’s too late by that point.”
And so it goes for the IHCC women (1-10-2, 0-4-1) and men (2-9-3, 1-6). The two teams had to go through several challenges in the opening half of the season, not the least of which is a combined five nationally rated conference opponents.
Both Warrior teams both have reasons to be optimistic heading into the second half of the season. After an 0-9-2 start that featured just five goals scored, the IHCC women entered the weekend off of their first victory of the season - a 4-0 shutout at Marshalltown last Tuesday.
More importantly, Seigle said his women’s team has grown tougher as the season has progressed.
“We were kind of a soft team at times where we’d let other teams kind of push us around,” Seigle said. “This Iowa Central game was a good example. We held our ground and we made our presence known.”
The IHCC men, who got off to a strong start before fading in the second half last year, hope for a reversal of fortune this fall. Besides settling for three ties in their first 14 matches, the Warrior men also lost overtime road games at NIACC and Marshalltown as well as a 1-0 loss at Iowa Lakes last weekend.
After working through disciplinary problems early in the season, Seigle hope that improved health and three home games in the second half of conference play will help IHCC make a second-half surge.
“We just have to be more consistent. We have bad habits come to the forefront when we get tired or we’re trying to adjust on the fly,” Seigle said. “Most of our games this year, we’ve been right in. We just have take advantage of those second chances we have coming up later this year.”
Both Warrior soccer squads head to Quad Cities to play at Scott Community College Wednesday in a doubleheader that will start with the women’s match at 2 p.m. Wins for both IHCC teams could lead to the Warriors getting postseason matches on their new homefield turf next month.
Sports
October 1, 2012
Warrior kickers look to improve; IHCC soccer teams battle to put first-half frustrations aside
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