Men's soccer closes 'foundational' season

The Western Iowa Tech men's soccer team wrapped up its inagural season with a 6-1 loss at Iowa Lakes on Wednesday, Oct. 18.

The Lakers, who currently rank as both the second-best team in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference and in NJCAA Division II, gave the Comets one last chance to test themselves against the premier competition of the ICCAC. The Comets now have a the offseason to review, reevaluate and retool in an effort to join the likes of Iowa Lakes, Southeastern and Northeast at the top of the conference standings. Northeast is currently No. 1 in the nation.

"This game really, really looked a lot like our season," head coach Alex Scheuler said. "Very good for over half the game, some periods where we couldn't sort stuff out to save ourselves and just about everything in between.

"It also confirmed and showed us as coaching staff where and how we need to develop those returning, and also where we need dto just bring in more talent."

WIT tied the game early in the second half when Aran Vivar Hernandez set up Julian Mena for a goal in the 49th minute. 

The Lakers scored less than four minutes later and added their third tally seven minutes after that to lead 3-1. 

Starting goalkeeper Aimar Aramendia made seven saves in 82 minutes of work. Sofienne Hammami played the final 7 minute and 30 seconds, making one save.

"(You) never want to end your season with a scoreline like that, but unfortuantely playing top teams you will get punished when you're not at it for the full 90 minutes," Scheuler said.

The Comets finish their maiden season 9-6-4 overall and 2-4-2 in the ICCAC, good for seventh place in the nine-team conference.

Scheuler said the coaching staff is "very excited to build on the foundation set this year" and they expect the experience gained this season to pay off next year.

"Most of the mistakes we made throughout the year were of ten due to inexperience, both mentally and physically," Scheuler said. "We have one of the best setups of any JUCO in the midwest when it comes to access and usage of facilities. This will allove us to develop players, the team and the program in a positive and unique manner."