Marshalltown, IA— A pair of first half goals combined with an unbreakable second half defense led the No. 13 Marshalltown Community College Men's Soccer team to a 2-0 upset over No. 3 Iowa Western Community College on Saturday afternoon.
The win is the first for the Tigers against the Reivers since a 1-0 victory in the 2012 Region XI Championship game, snapping a seven match slide. Since the 2012 victory, the Tigers had posted a .784 winning percentage, but were 0-5-2 against the Reivers before Saturday.
"It was a great match to be a part of," MCC head coach Rafael Martinez stated. "Both teams left everything on the field and this time we were the ones who materialized our opportunities better than them. I'm very proud of how hard we worked, everyone playing for each other as a cohesive unit."
With the win, the Tigers improved to 7-1-0 overall and 6-1-0 in Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) play. The Reivers suffered their first loss of the season and fell to 7-1-0 overall and in conference action.
MCC, who had not scored a goal against Iowa Western in their last seven matches, got on the board first as freshman Kino Ryosuke (Hyogo, Japan/Takigawadaini) took advantage of an Iowa Western turnover in the offensive third of the field. Ryosuke beat the goalkeeper one-on-one to put MCC up 1-0 in the 13th minute.
The defense, anchored by goalkeeper Rafael Pereira (Lisbon, Portugal/Escola Secundaria Vergilio Ferreira) slowed down the Reivers attack throughout the first half. Pereira stopped four shots in the first half while the back line of Fernando Gutierrez (Ibiza, Spain/I.E.S. Algarb), Miguel Jareno (Ubeda, Spain/I.E.S. Lopez-Neyra), Jose David Alvarez (Fernan Nunez, Spain/I.E.S. Francisco de los Rios) and Pedro Oliveira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/Colegio Estadual) provided extra support.
MCC doubled its lead in the 41st minute after sophomore Thiago Fernandes (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/Colegio Dom Oton Mota) fired a shot from 25 yards out. The shot ricocheted off of a Reiver defender and found its way into the net.
An aggressive Pereira held his own in the second half, taking away any scoring chance the Reivers attempted to develop. The sophomore stopped a series of shots and disrupted multiple breakaways that could have proved costly for the Tigers.
"We had the challenge of a good team," Martinez continued, "yet we continued to fight and followed our plan. It is a nice win but we know how difficult the whole season is going to be. We need to recover from the physical effort and start thinking about our next opponent because there are no easy games in our conference."
Ryosuke's streak of posting at least two points in a match was extended with the freshman's goal on Saturday, stretching the streak to eight games. The shutout was Pereira's 14th career clean sheet, including his third against Iowa Western.
The Tigers return home to take on Hawkeye Community College at 4:00 PM on Tuesday afternoon.
