CL boys drop final two regular season soccer games

The Clear Lake boys soccer team dropped their final two games of the regular season, putting their record at 4-14 heading into post-season play.

Mason City 3, CL 0

On Monday, May 15, the Lions were host to Mason City on Senior Night and Parents Night.  The kickoff off came after a two hour delay, thanks to some untimely lightning and rain.

The Lions’ line up for the night featured seven seniors and two foreign exchange students.

“Seniors Kyle Willms, Dylan Clapper and Shane Fuhrman have been with our program for the past four seasons.  Last season we picked up three more seniors in Cody Matz, Torian Lee, and Nate DiCamillo.  This season we added senior Ryan Atkinson and two foreign exchange students to our rooster in Mordecai Nsabaah and Mahmoud Majdi,” explained Coach Matt Anderson.

Mason City took a 1-0 lead into the halftime after sophomore goal keeper Joel Groeneweg made a play on a ball which took a friendly bounce to the attacking Mohawk.

The second half of the match went Mason City’s way, with goals scored in the 48th and 72nd minute of the contest.

Groeneweg finished the contest with 14 saves in his first varsity start at goal keeper.  Willms added some excitement to the contest in the 77th minute when he fired a shot on goal from just inside mid-field.  Unfortunately for the Lions, the Mason City keeper made a nice play on the ball and kept Clear Lake off the score board.

IF-A 3, CL 0

On Thursday, May 18, the Lions hosted Iowa Falls-Alden at Lions field.  IF-A came into the contest with a perfect record and the state’s leading goal scorer.

“Our plan for this match was very simple, pack the bottom third of the field, keep ball control as much as possible, and do not allow #10 (Marcos Vila from IF-A) any open space,” said Coach Matt Anderson.

After the first 40 minutes IF-A had a 1-0 lead at half time.

“Outside of our own misplayed ball, which gave IF-A their goal, we had a very clean first half.  I was pleasantly surprised to see our team organizing several attacks on IF-A’s back line and winning numerous corner kicks,” said Anderson.

Ryan Atkinson was tasked with playing man defense on IF-A’s Vila.

“Atkinson was remarkable in his efforts for the entire contest,” noted the coach.

In the second half, IF-A managed two additional goals, both scored by Logan Steelman.  Although held to one goal, Vila managed to get the single season state record for most goals scored in a regular season by a single player.

“Even though not allowing Vila to record a goal, was one of our goals, I was very pleased with our defensive efforts.  Vila was averaging more than four goals per contest and as a team they were averaging over six goals per contest.  We held very well in the first 40 minutes and just missed on several chances to put them on their heels.”