The Lakers started their defense of the national championship with a 4-1 win in Belleville, Ill against Southwest Illinois College. 

The first half started as a chess match with Iowa Lakes pulling Blue Storm out of shape. The breakthrough came when Freshman Kenta Yagi was tripped in the area, then Sophomore Rudhan Feeney sent the Blue Keeper the wrong way and scored the Penalty. Then with less than 5 seconds in the half, transfer Sophomore Haruya Higuchi doubled the lead. 

The second half was much more frantic as SWIC pushed men forward to disrupt the Lakers possession. However, that left them exposed on the back line and Kasper Wollstein (Fr) was able to break through making it 3-0. The Blue Storm did make it interesting with 14 minutes to play by pulling one back. In the end when freshman Renato Gonzalez with some brilliant ball skills showed the depth of the Iowa Lakes team, when he scored the fourth goal on the day. At the final whistle a 4-1 win to start the season was captured by coach Ben MacRae.

On Sunday at 12:30 PM game two will be played in the St. Louis area against St. Louis Community College.