Norfolk, NE—Taking on the newest member of the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC), the 18th ranked Marshalltown Community College men's soccer team cruised to a 6-0 victory on the road Saturday afternoon. Five different players recorded a goal, including two from sophomore David Gomez (Marshalltown, IA/Marshalltown).
Entering competition for the first time as a varsity program, the Hawks (0-1-0/0-1-0) hosted MCC (4-0-0/1-0-0) on a warm, sunny day in Norfolk. The Tigers used a pair of goals in the first half from Alberto Morales (Granada, Spain/Santa Fe DH) and Agustin Ortiz (Marshalltown, IA/Marshalltown). MCC added four more scores in the second half as Gomez scored twice in a two minute span to help the Tigers improve to 4-0 for the first time since 2011.
Firing 25 total shots on the day, the Tigers upped their conference-leading shot total to 96 on the year, which ranks third among all NJCAA Division I teams. MCC also recorded 10 corner kicks, which ranks second in the nation.
Freshman keeper Rafael Pereira (Lisbon, Portugal/Escola Secundaria Vergilio Ferreira) played 81 minutes in goal, stopping two shots before relieving the duties to Eion Powers (Fort Madison, IA/Holy Trinity Catholic) who faced just one shot as MCC, playing in its first game as ranked squad this year, posted its first shutout of the year.
Morales, MCC's leading scorer, scored the opening goal in the 18th minute as Thiago Fernandes (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/Colegio Dom Oton Mota) sent a through ball from the attacking third to put the Tigers on the board. The goal was the fifth of the year for Morales and proved to be his second game-winning goal of the season. Fernandes was credited with his first-career point.
Ortiz recorded his fourth-career goal and first of the season in the 37th minute as Adrian Gomez (Ponteareas, Spain/Aceimar) delivered a pass to Ortiz who fired a shot to double the Tiger lead. Sergio Beresaluze (Novelda, Spain/Colegio Padre Dehon) netted his first-career goal just five minutes in to the second half on a combination of passes from Morales and Artur Aguiar (Fortaleza, Brazil/7 de Setembro).
Adrian Gomez was on the receiving end of a pass from Beresaluze in the 69th minute to give MCC a 4-0 edge. David Gomez, the team's third-leading scorer in 2014, scored his first goal of 2015 in the 81st minute on a penalty kick. David Gomez teamed up with fellow sophomore Eniz Smajlovic (Ankeny, IA/Ankeny) in the 83rd minute as Smajlovic sent a low cross from the goal line and David Gomez was able to bury the shot for his second-career multi-goal game.
The Tigers return to conference action at home on Sept. 9 as Indian Hills Community College (1-3-0/0-1-0) comes to the MCC campus for a 4:00 PM match.