PELLA — The beginning of both halves was kind to the Central College men's soccer team in a 4-0 season-opening win over Westminster College (Mo.) Thursday afternoon.
Central (1-0-0) struck first at the 10:33 mark as
Coleman Manuel (sophomore, midfield, Erie, Colo.) slipped one into the net.
Matthew West (senior, forward, Pleasant Hill, Southeast Polk HS) made it 2-0 five minutes later with a penalty kick.
"Once we got the first goal, we started playing our game," coach
Garry Laidlaw said. "I'm really happy for Coleman. All goals scorers need a goal to settle themselves. If we can get a goal per game out of him, we're going to be doing alright this year."
Barely a minute into the second half,
Joe Brown (sophomore, defender, Norwalk) scored off a
Nathan Casas corner kick for a 3-0 advantage.
Jake Dzarnowski (fifth year, midfielder, Wheaton, Ill., North HS) gave the game it's final tally at 51:30.
"We talked about it at halftime," Laidlaw said. "I thought if we could get a third goal it would go a long way towards settling us down for the remainder of the game.
Brown and Casas assisted on Manuel's goal and Manuel assisted on Dzarnowski's goal. In addition to his two assists, Casas had two of his three shot attempts saved.
"Having Nathan back adds another dimension to our attack," Laidlaw said.
Defensively, Central only allowed one shot attempt to give
John Foster (junior, Lee's Summit, Mo., North HS) a shutout in goal.
"We're really happy with the way we're defending," Laidlaw said. "I know it's early, but the signs are there that we are going to be harder to beat. Our center backs were on point and did a great job with the 50-50 balls. The outside backs were tremendous and ran their socks off."
Central has a pair of games in Minnesota over the Labor Day weekend, starting at Augsburg University (Minn.) in Minneapolis at 7 p.m. on Saturday night.
