Warriors Drop Hard-Fought Battle with MCC

Ottumwa -- The Indian Hills men's soccer team showed how much progress it's made in a year in the Warriors' opening game of 2009 against Marshalltown CC on Tuesday at the Walsh Soccer Complex. Marshalltown, ranked seventh in the nation in the NJCAA preseason poll, downed the Warriors 5-1. But that was a far cry from a year ago when the Tigers took both meeting with IHCC by a combined score of 23-0. In fact, MCC had scored an average of 15 goals per contest in its previous matches against the Warriors.

On Tuesday, Marshalltown scored the first goal less than four minutes into the first half. The Tigers' second goal was inadvertently knocked into the IHCC goal by the Warriors' Miguel Torres. When Indian Hills sophomore Ryan Culbertson tallied the Warriors' first goal, an unassisted score later in the opening half, it allowed IHCC to go off at halftime trailing, 2-1.

The Warriors' offense was bottled up by a tough MCC defense in the second half as Indian Hills was held to just one shot in the last half. Marshalltown added three goals in an 11-minute span in the second half for the final margin.

IHCC freshman goalkeeper Ben Smiley had three saves while facing only nine shots.

Indian Hills first-year head coach Kirk Artist said the loss was disappointing. "We had a ten-minute breakdown in the second half and that needs to be fixed. We will continue to improve every day though and will mold this team together to reach our potential."

The Warriors will battle Iowa Western at the Walsh Complex at 2:00 Saturday afternoon.