Des Moines, IA- For the second straight year the No. 14 Marshalltown Community College men's soccer team will play in the Region XI Championship match after the Tigers rolled Iowa Lakes Community College 5-1 in the semifinal round on Saturday afternoon at the Cownie Soccer Park. The Tigers used four second half goals to advance.
MCC, the No. 2 seed in the Region XI Tournament, will play top-seeded Iowa Western Community College at 3:00 PM at the Cownie Soccer Park after the Reivers defeated No. 5 seed Iowa Central Community College 4-1 on Saturday. Sunday's contest will be a rematch of the 2015 Region XI Championship, a game that the Reivers won 1-0 in double overtime vs. the Tigers.
"I'm really proud of the performance today," stated MCC head coach Rafael Martinez. "I think the guys really wanted the game today. We've had some good practices the last few days and the looked focused today. They really wanted to be here, and they really wanted to work hard to earn another opportunity. Our work isn't done after qualifying for the championship match. We want more. We work for more."
The Tigers pressured the Lakers throughout most of the first half, totaling 18 shots in the first 45 minutes. After multiple failed attempts on goal, MCC finally broke through in the 34th minute after freshman Jose Moreno (Cordoba, Spain/I.E.S. Blas Infante) snuck a shot in the corner on an assist from Kino Ryosuke (Hyogo, Japan/Takigawadaini). The MCC defense limited any Laker threat in the first half to take the 1-0 lead into intermission.
Iowa Lakes upped its attack to begin the second half, but the Tigers were able to counter and struck pay dirt in the 64th minute. Sophomore defender Fernando Gutierrez (Ibiza, Spain/I.E.S. Algarb), who had multiple scoring chances in the first half, broke free on a direct kick from Alieu Kamara (Brooklyn Park, MN/Prairie Seeds) and slid a shot into the back of the net for the 2-0 lead. The goal was the first of the season for Gutierrez.
Less than a minute later Ryosuke attacked the net and dropped a pass back to Gabriel Perez (Guayaquil, Ecuador/Profesor Maximo Trueba) who delivered for a 3-0 Tiger lead. Miguel Jareno (Ubeda, Spain/I.E.S. Lopez-Neyra) got in on the scoring in the 69th minute after heading home a corner kick from Moreno, the sophomore's first-career goal.
Freshman Alex Diaz (Marshalltown, IA/Marshalltown) was taken down in the box in the 78th minute and earned the Tigers a penalty kick. Kamara stepped up and rifled a shot into the net for his first career goal.
Iowa Lakes tacked on a goal in the 88th minute, but the Tigers had already booked its ticket to the championship match.
MCC and Iowa Western will meet for the third time this season. The Tigers defeated the Reivers 2-0 in Marshalltown on Sept. 17 while the Oct. 1 match ended in a 1-1 tie. The two teams have combined to win the last four Region XI championships.
"We're excited about the opportunity tomorrow," Martinez added. "We have to play our very best and that's all we can do. We have a very good team ahead of us that is focused. We look forward to the challenge, but we have to be ourselves, be brave and go after it."
Stay tuned for live streaming availability for Sunday's match.
