Slaubaugh’s 2 goals help MP victory

RIVERSIDE - Last year, Mid-Prairie opened its boys high school soccer season with a 10-0 win at Highland.

This year's season opener was also at Highland, but the victory was a 3-0 score.

Highland won its season opener last Thursday but couldn't maintain the winning, no thanks to the ever-present wind Monday.

'The wind was a huge factor,” Highland coach Alex Cruz said. 'They score those first two goals with the help of the wind. It was like having a couple extra people on their team.”

The score was 2-0 for the Golden Hawks at halftime with both goals from Aaron Slaubaugh.

'I saw it bounce off the goalie, so I decided to chase it and get the goal for myself,” Slabaugh said of his initial goal that found the net with 24 minutes, 33 seconds remaining in the first half. 'The second goal, I got a good pass from Zeus (Fugate) into the middle and I just happened to be in the right spot again so I got a nice shot off on goal.”

That score came just 4:44 before intermission.

'We have been working on finishing because we did not score anything in our scrimmages,” MP coach Pat Cady said. 'I think our forwards are starting to understand their roles a little bit better and our passing has improved. We have a problem with trying to force the ball to Ashton (VanWinkle, who led the team with 15 goals last season) even when he is covered up by two or three guys. We need to look to the guys we have established on the outside. aaron was kind of a sleeper for us last year. Today, he had two shots that went to the goalkeeper and two shots that bounced off the post. He could've easily had four or five goals.”

Playing the ball to the outside was a continuing focus for the coach.

'I've been trying to get the guys to do that,” Cady said. 'It is not as sexy, but if we keep possession of it, we can build up the field. I thought we did really good on possession. I told the kids at halftime I thought Highland was starting to run out of gas already. We have to do that. We want the other team to chase.”

Highland was able to chase as well as it might have.

'We had a couple of injuries we had to deal with tonight,” Cruz said. 'We had some people playing in spots that they had not played in practice so it is kind of tough for them to go into a game at a position they were not used to.”

Mid-Prairie will need to get used to having a target on them. They received votes in the preseason rankings released Monday by the Iowa High School Soccer Coaches Association.

'This was a tough team,” Cruz said. 'I guess it's a little bit of a positive (not losing 10-0 like last year), but losing is losing to me.”

The Golden Hawks cemented the win with a goal by VanWinkle with 5 minutes left in the match. Nathan Quinby booted a through ball that VanWinkle ran down and blasted past the goal keeper.

Mid-Prairie plays at West Liberty Thursday.

Highland plays host to Danville today.