Wednesday afternoon was a productive afternoon for Northeast Community College men’s and women’s soccer teams.
Both of the Hawks squads bounced back from disappointing losses to Hawkeye Community College by downing counterparts from Dakota County Technical College of Rosemount, MN, in shut-out fashion with the men’s team doubling its win total with a 2-0 victory, following the women’s 6-0 win over the Blue Knights.
“The men needed that win,” Hawks coach Chad Miller said. “In the first half I was really happy with how we played; we moved the ball well, and I thought we attacked well.”
Northeast scored both of its goals in the first half, the first by David Evans with an assist by Axcele Biteghe, and the second a breakaway chance created by a long Evans pass that became a one-on-one for Paul Einero with the Dakota County goalkeeper. Einero juked to the left, forcing a commitment by his opponent, then finished into an empty net for the 2-0 halftime lead.
Unfortunately, the Hawks were unable to add more goals, despite totaling 27 shots with 16 on goal attempts and limiting the Blue Knights to just four shots in the contest with none on goal.
“In the second half I don’t think we did everything as well,” Miller said. “I don’t know if we thought everything was going to be easier, but the intensity we had in the first half wasn’t there in the second.”
“I told the guys that it comes down to finishing our opportunities; we had so many chances in the first half that should have been goals, and we’re not getting them,” he said. “Good teams get those, and we had a couple of those (against Hawkeye) on Saturday. We have to get that fixed.”
Northeast is now 2-10 over all and 1-1 in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference after beginning conference play last weekend, suffering a disappointing 3-2 loss to Hawkeye Community College after relinquishing the lead in the match.
Miller said that the Hawks played well against Hawkeye, which will be one of the top teams in the conference by season’s end--along with Southeastern CC--but “self-destructed and gave it away,” which is the way he thought his team performed in the second half against Dakota County by being content to have a 2-0 lead rather than finish strong.
“We still have another eight games in conference, and there’s always time to make the adjustment, because it really comes down to being mentally smart with it,” Miller said. “It’s not one of those things we can fix in practice; it’s definitely something a player can fix himself. It’s just a thought process.”
The Northeast women improved to 6-5 overall and also evened their record to 1-1 in the ICCAC after blasting the Blue Knights 6-0.
The Hawks spent most of the 90 minutes of game action in front of the Dakota County goal, racking up 38 total shots with 26 directly on goal. The Blue Knights did not record a shot attempt.
Sara Pedroza scored two goals to lead the Hawks, with Meghan Colton assisting on the first and Kyler Bowman assisting on the second. Pyper Lochead also scored on a Colton assist that, along with Pedroza’s first goal provided Northeast with a 2-0 lead just four minutes into the match.
Other goals came from Kailey Lincoln and Brianna Mendias, with Romeni Gurmendi assisting on both, and the final goal was by Kelsey Tabbert assisted by Lincoln to establish the 6-0 final score.
“Their coach always does the same thing, giving his offense a try at first, then will drop people back on defense,” Miller said. “It’s honestly a test for us, because it becomes how disciplined we are--because we tell our girls what to do (against that strategy), but are we willing to do it.”
Although the Hawks scored six goals, Miller said he felt that his team “still tried to force the ball into the middle, but you just can’t do that when there are nine people packed into the defensive end.”
“That’s one of the things we talked about after the game, that we needed to use our soccer IQ,” Miller said. “We can’t call a timeout and fix it--they need to see what’s going on and communicate among themselves.”
The women’s team had also dropped its conference opener against Hawkeye, losing 3-1 in a game which Miller felt showed his team was a victim of its over-confidence.
“We’ve had a very tough schedule, and we’ve been competitive with those teams,” Miller said. “So I feel like we came into that game thinking it should be easy based on the talent we played, but Hawkeye showed that they wanted it more than we did.”
“We were getting there,” he said. “The last 10 minutes of the game we were playing well, but it just didn’t work out. We just needed a different focus coming into the game.”
Both Hawks squads will host Southeastern Community College, another conference foe, on Saturday afternoon with the women’s game set to begin at 2 p.m. and the men to follow at 4.
Men’s game
Dakota County Technical College (3-6, 0-2) 0 0 -- 0
Northeast Community College (2-10, 1-1) 2 0 -- 2
Goals: (NECC) David Evans, Paul Einero. Assists: (NECC) Axcele Biteghe, Evans.
Women’s game
Dakota County Technical College (4-6, 0-2) 0 0 -- 0
Northeast Community College (6-5, 1-1) 3 3 -- 6
Goals: (NECC) Sara Pedroza (2), Pyper Lochead, Kaily Lincoln, Brianna Mendias, Kelsey Tabbert. Assists: (NECC) Meghan Colton (2, Romeni Gurmendi (2), Kyler Bowman, Lincoln.
