NorthIowaToday.com

Founded in 2010

News & Entertainment for Mason City, Clear Lake & the Entire North Iowa Region

NIACC stops Iowa Central 4-3 in double overtime

– By Kirk Hardcastle, NIACC sports information director

niacc_trojans_logoMASON CITY – Down 3-0 at the half turned out to be no problem for the NIACC men’s soccer team.

NIACC stopped Iowa Central 4-3 in double overtime Tuesday afternoon at the NIACC pitch on a game-winning goal by sophomore captain Cesar Herrera.

Herrera scored the game-winner on a penalty kick with 3 minutes, 40 seconds remaining in the second overtime to lift the Trojans to the dramatic victory.
“I was confident,” Herrera said of his game-winning goal, his third goal of the season. “It was close.

“He did get his tips on it, but I hit it hard enough where he couldn’t save it. That’s what matters.”

NIACC (6-7 overall, 2-7 in the ICCAC) trailed 3-0 at the half.

“We didn’t play well at all in the first half,” said NIACC coach Jonathan Platt, who gained his first career win against Iowa Central after eight straight losses.

“We just challenged the boys, really, in the second half to go out and enjoy it and see what we could get going.

Freshman Timothy Dehelean, on an assist from Herrera, scored NIACC’s first goal of the second half with 22:40 remaining. The Trojans made it 3-2 with 11:45 left in the contest on a goal by Aaron Blanchard and Hafiz Sanor tied the contest at 3-3 with 1:19 remaining.

“We got a goal back fairly early, which was nice,” Platt said. “Then we just kept plugging away. The chances came because we kept working hard.”

Neither team scored in the first 10-minute overtime. Herrera lifted the Trojans to their first win over the Tritons since the 2011 season with his game-winner in the second overtime setting off a celebration in front of the NIACC fans.

“I just started running,” Herrera said of his reaction after the game-winner. “I really didn’t know where I was running to. I just ran.”

Iowa Central had won eight straight contests in the series. NIACC’s last win over the Tritons was a 2-0 win in the second round of the NJCAA Region XI tournament.
NIACC returns to action Saturday at Iowa Western. Platt said he’s hoping his team can carry over some momentum from Tuesday’s come-from-behind victory.

“Let’s hope so,” the coach said. “We really operate in fine margins. There’s some games we could of lost and there’s some that we could have won. In our conference, the games are so marginal that one kick either way is the difference between a win and a loss.

“You saw that here. At halftime, they (the Tritons) probably think they’re cruising, but we managed to get back in the game and win it.”

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Even more news:

Copyright 2024 – Internet Marketing Pros. of Iowa, Inc.
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x