MOUNT PLEASANT – St. Ambrose University broke a tie with a penalty kick early in the second half and went on to a 4-2 win over the Iowa Wesleyan College men’s soccer team in the Tigers’ regular season finale Saturday afternoon at East Lake Park.
The Bees put a damper on Senior Day for five IWC players, scoring in a number of different ways to send the Tigers to their fourth straight loss. Wesleyan also dropped to 5-13 overall on the season, 3-5 in the MCC, while St. Ambrose moved to 2-14-1, 2-5-1 in conference.
SAU started the scoring in odd fashion when Matt Carlson took a shot from 20 yards out that went right into a nearby IWC defender. The ball deflected high in the air and towards the goal, though, over the head of goalkeeper Troy Osborne (So.-Sydney, Australia) and into the net for an early lead.
The Tigers answered quickly on both of the Bees’ first two goals, including a goal by Jake Pilger (Sr.-Burlington, Iowa) off a pass from Michael Roberts (Sr.-St. Johns, Antigua) to knot the match at 1-1. St. Ambrose retook the lead at the 34:15 mark, but Roberts struck just 31 seconds later with his 13th goal of the season, an unassisted marker to tie the score again.
The score remained that way into early in the second half. The Tigers committed a foul in the box in the 56th minute and Simon Murphy converted the penalty kick to give the guests the lead again. SAU then salted the match away when Carlson scored off a pass from Murphy in the 82nd minute.
The Fighting Bees outshot IWC 12-8, including an 8-4 advantage in shots on goal. Osborne made four saves, while Justin Harper made two saves in goal for St. Ambrose.
The match was the final home game for five Iowa Wesleyan seniors, including Pilger, Roberts, Emil Yazdani (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Goer Niu (Beijing, China). Alberto de Mesa (Malaga, Spain) also is a senior on this year’s team but has been injured and did not play Saturday.
Wesleyan now will wait for its seeding and assignment in the upcoming MCC Tournament. IWC is in position for a sixth or seventh seed and will play on the road next Sunday against an opponent to be determined.
For more information regarding the IWC soccer programs or any of the Tiger athletic teams, contact sports information director Adam Glatczak (319-385-6306 phone; 319-385-6384 FAX; aglatczak@iwc.edu e-mail) or log on to IWC's athletics web site at www.iwc.edu/athletics.
