STATE CENTER — Central Iowa United’s soccer programs are made up of six different school districts. So team chemistry is definitely challenging during the early portion of the season.
Now that the boys’ squad has played a handful of matches, the chemistry is beginning to develop and the wins are following.
Central Iowa United recorded its second straight win on Thursday after using a fast start to down PCM, 4-1, during Heart of Iowa Athletic Conference action.
“I think our hardest game of the season was our first game,” Colfax-Mingo senior Austin Lane said. “We hadn’t played with each other the entire fall and winter. We had no chemistry at all.
“The first four games of ours were against some good teams. We could have won those games, but we weren’t playing as a team yet.”
CIU looked like a team which had some chemistry against the Mustangs. The hosts scored twice during the span of 9 seconds nearly three minutes into the contest and used that momentum to clinch their first HOIAC victory of the season.
Aiden Downs opened the scoring with a goal in the 3rd minute off a nifty crosser from the left side of the field from Baxter senior Ben Richardson.
Central Iowa United quickly went in front 2-0 after Andrew Tollefson of West Marshall scored off a PCM turnover after the restart.
“We’ve had trouble starting games and putting two halves together,” PCM head soccer coach Darrin Telfer said. “It takes us a while to get going. We react way more than we should. We need to be the aggressor. The second half was 1-1. We played much better that half. We just didn’t show up to play at the start.”
Central Iowa United got a third goal in the first half when Downs scored again in the 31st minute. That came off an assist from Lane.
Richardson, who led CIU in goals last year, got on the board this season nearly 10 minutes into the second half to put the home team in front 4-0. Tollefson had the assist on that one.
“We were still feeling good after the nine-goal match the game before and the start today certainly helped us,” Richardson said. “We really tried to apply some early pressure to get out to a good start. We wanted to strike first and that last game did give us some confidence.”
PCM’s Justin Johnston scored his fourth goal of the season in the 62nd minute, but it was too little too late for the Mustangs, who couldn’t take advantage of a strong wind in the second half.
Central Iowa United (2-5, 1-2 in the HOIAC) had the wind advantage in the first half and totaled a 13-5 surplus in shots. PCM narrowed the gap to 19-16 for the match but couldn’t muster up more than the one goal.
The Mustangs had a 12-10 deficit in shots on goal but held a 7-4 advantage in the second half.
“We were cautious in the first half,” Telfer said. “Once we settled in, I thought we played much better. We’re 1-5 now, but I feel like we are a lot better than that.
“We’re going through some growing pains. Our first touches need to be better. We need to be more confident in each other, too.”
Terrell Wood unoffcially made eight saves for the Mustangs (2-5, 0-3), while CIU goalie Lucas Barnes had 10 saves.
Lane thinks some of CIU’s recent success is due to a change in how they attack on offense.
“We are playing through the middle,” Lane said. “We used to just boom it up field like a lot of other high school teams. But we are playing through our midfielders and that has helped us score more goals recently.”
Central Iowa United 9, South Tama County 1
Tollefson scored four goals, Richardson dished out a career-best five assists and Lane tallied a pair of goals as Central Iowa United picked up its first win of the season on Tuesday.
CIU led 5-0 at halftime and went on to down South Tama County, 9-1, during a non-conference home match.
Downs and Jack Seyller added goals and Colfax-Mingo’s Gage Byal chipped in an assist. Barnes registered one goal and one assist and made four saves.
South Tama (0-4) has been outscored 26-1 this season.
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