PELLA — Unable to find a goal, the Central College men's soccer team lost to Simpson College 1-0 Tuesday afternoon.
           
The offense never clicked for Central (2-8-2, 1-2-1 American Rivers Conference) against Simpson (10-3-1, 3-1-1 conference).                                                                                                    
           
"Sometimes, you're simply off," coach Garry Laidlaw said. "Our touch, our passing, we were just off today. We felt good coming onto the pitch and the team felt ready. We can point fingers a lot of things we may not have done well, but in general we were just off."
           
After being outshot 9-2 in the first half, Central held a 4-3 advantage in the second half.
           
"We battled better in the second half," Laidlaw said. "We were in the game and felt like we could get something right to the last minute.
           
Forward Joe Brown (sophomore, Norwalk) had two of Central's three shots on goal.
           
"Joe battled hard up front for us," Laidlaw said. "We isolated him at times in the game and I thought he put in a good shift."
           
Goalkeeper John Foster (junior, Lee's Summit, Mo., North HS) made seven saves and nearly kept the goal out of the net as the ball was headed off the crossbar into the net.
           
The Dutch were without three likely starters due to injury: midfielder Jake Dzarnowski (fifth year, Wheaton, Ill., North HS), midfielder Kale Schulte (freshman, Vinton, Vinton-Shellsburg HS) and defender/midfielder Lucas Bartachek (sophomore, Waukee). It was the first game without Schulte while Dzarnowski and Bartachek have each missed a handful of games.
           
Central travels to Loras College for a 3:30 p.m. match Saturday.

"We're going to try to and flush this one quickly," Laidlaw said. "We are still well in the chase and we know we've got a challenge on Saturday."