NJCAA Division I Men's Soccer Poll
Another dominant week from the Marshalltown Community College Men's Soccer team led to a jump in the national polls as the Tigers moved up to No. 5 in this week's NJCAA Division I Men's Soccer Poll. MCC currently holds an unbeaten record of 13-0-1 and are 9-0-1 in Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) play.
The Tigers moved up two spots in this week's poll after coming in at No. 7 last week. MCC used a pair of wins last week, a 4-1 victory over Indian Hills Community College on Wednesday and a convincing 16-0 win over Scott Community College on Friday, to remain unbeaten.
The No. 5 ranking is the second-best in school history, just behind the 2007 team's No. 3 ranking at the conclusion of the season.
The NJCAA top 10 received a bit of a shakeup in this week's rankings after the top three teams in last week's poll all lost. Fellow ICCAC member Iowa Western dropped four spots this week after tying North Iowa Area Community College over the weekend. Louisburg College took the top spot with a 10-1-0 record followed by last week's No. 1 team Monroe College. Pima Community College moved up two spots to No. 3 while unbeaten Mercer County Community College came in at No. 4 this week.
The Tigers currently rank second in the nation with a 0.43 goals against average. Freshman Rafael Pereira (Lisbon, Portugal/Escola Secundaria Vergilio Ferreira) is tied for first in the country with Iowa Western's goalie Josh Blair with a 0.44 individual goals against average. MCC also ranks third in the nation in total shots with 304 and sixth in corner kicks with 99.
Freshman Alberto Morales (Granada, Spain/Santa Fe DH) ranks second in the ICCAC with 10 goals and 23 points while Adrian Gomez (Ponteareas, Spain/Aceimar) leads the conference with six assists and ranks third with eight goals and 22 points.
MCC has just four games remaining in the regular season, including three against the three teams directly behind the Tigers in the ICCAC standings. MCC travels to fourth-place Iowa Central Community College at 4:00 PM on Wednesday before hosting second-place Iowa Western Community College at 2:00 PM on Saturday.