DECORAH — A potent Luther College men's soccer team tallied five goals against the Central College men's soccer team as the Dutch were knocked off by a 5-0 margin Saturday.
The Dutch (10-6-0, 4-3-0 Iowa Conference) held the No. 24 ranked Norse (11-4-2, 5-2-0) off the scoreboard for the game's first 30 minutes. A goal in the 32nd minute broke the scoring drought as the Norse racked up all of their goals over the final 60 minutes.
"We played a good team today," coach Garry Laidlaw said. "They're worthy of their status and ranking. As always when we suffer a tough defeat, we learned a lot of things. We're not deterred."
Junior Calvin Bill (Hartsburg, Mo., Southern Boone County HS) was critical to the squad's defensive organization.
"He had a strong game in the back," Laidlaw said. "He really held us together when we were a little bit stretched at times today."
Freshman Ean Wilson (Algonquin, Ill., Jacobs HS) has had an injury-riddled debut season with the Dutch but Laidlaw said he might have had his best outing of the season.
"It's nice to give him some opportunities and get him to speed with the college game," he said.
A critical match against Wartburg College (12-5-1, 5-2) awaits in the final game of the regular season on Tuesday. Depending on other conference results from Saturday, Central is still in play for a home match in the first round of the league tournament on October 29.
"We don't know the numbers yet, but we're going to go out there with the mindset that win could potentially give us a home game," Laidlaw said. "We still have a lot to play for on Tuesday."
The match starts at 2:30 p.m. from Central's A.N. Kuyper Athletics Complex.
