Mens Soccer: Struggling to the Finish

EAST PEORIA — The Illinois Central College mens soccer team discovered the winning way hard to find in the last couple of weeks of the season as they lost three of their last six matches.

“We have been making too many mistakes at important times in the game,” said coach Oz Bakirdan. “We haven’t played a full 90-minute game all season.”

The Cougars (9-5-1) had won eight games in a row before their 3-3 draw with Parkland on Sept. 25 at Parkland. ICC led three times in the match 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 before getting the draw.

“We led that whole game and made some critical mistakes, and it caught us,” said Bakirdan. “It was a tough loss to take.”

ICC then turned around and lost two straight matches in a row with losses to Lincoln Land Community College on Oct. 2 and rival Lincoln College on Oct. 4. The Cougars split with the two teams last year.

“We haven’t lost back to back games in awhile,” said Bakirdan. “Not taking our chances, [and we] missed a penalty kick against Lincoln Land. Mental toughness has been our problem all year.”

The Cougars followed the losses with a 7-1 win against St. Ambrose University JV, but followed up that match with a loss to Lewis & Clark. In the St. Ambrose win, Salomon Ocampo scored two goals in the match.

ICC defeated Carl Sandburg JV 6-2 on sophomore night. Freshman Carson Gray scored two goals in the match and added an assist. Freshman Javier

Valle also had a goal and two assists.

“We wanted to come out and finish strong,” Bakirdan said. “I thought we were the better team and the results showed it.”

Gray led the team in goals for this season with a total of 11. He also added four assists and had 26 points on the season.

“This season has went well, we have had our ups and downs but they are both learning experiences,” said Gray. “So we are going to take both of them into the tournament.”

Freshman Pedro Ocampo led the team with six assists.

During the final home game, the Cougars celebrated the five sophomores Norman Ramos, Deron Joe, Ibrahim Keita, Gerrardo Covarrubias and Caue Rodrigues.

“You lose leadership, guys with experience and guys that have been at the national tournament,” Bakirdan said. “That is hard to replace.”

The Cougars will return some freshmen that have seen significant playing time this year and will be looked to for leadership next year.

“Gray is coming into his own in scoring,” said Bakirdan. “There are so many guys we return and [we] hope to see a lot from these guys.”

The Cougars begin Region XXIV postseason play on Oct. 26 at Lincoln College at noon.