Iowa Wesleyan soccer season begins

MT. PLEASANT — The college soccer season is officially upon us and both Iowa Wesleyan soccer teams are underway. The men fell 3-0 in their season opener on Friday at Central College and the women played to a 1-1 draw on Saturday against Rockford College.

The Tigers held the Dutch to just one goal in the first 74 minutes on Friday. Central's Landon Daniels scored in the 15th minute but it was 1-0 until late in the second.

The Dutch put up two goals in the second half. Jake Dzarnowski scored in the 74th minute and Tony Cervelli scored in the 80th.

Carlos Moreno led the Tigers with three shots total and two shots on goal in the loss. Carlos Lopez, Jeinner Farfan and Xavier Lozada each had one shot.

Trevor Haasis made five saves in the loss. Elijah Perez made one.

In Saturday's women's game at East Lake Park, the Tiger women dominated chances early on but couldn't score in the first half. Rockford scored the opening goal in the 32nd minute.

The Tigers equalized early in the second half. Jaqueline Ivers found Emmy Rodriguez on a through ball and Rodriguez popped it over the keeper's head and sent it in to tie.

'It was a good run into space from Emmy,' said head coach Chris Gaskins who was coaching his first game at IW. 'Jackie played a nice through ball, so they combined pretty well. They're pretty clever players (and) we're looking for them to build on that throughout the rest of the season.'

Both teams had chances to break the tie in the second half, but neither could break through.

'I think we definitely started the game pretty well (and had a solid first half, outside of the one mistake to give up the goal,' Coach Gaskins said. 'I'm proud of the effort today.'

The men's team was at Hannibal-LaGrange University on Wednesday night. The recap of that game will be in a future edition of The Union. The women's team will play at home again on Saturday, Sept. 7, against Stephens College.