Men’s Soccer survives close game against Iowa Central

August 22nd, 2018

East Peoria, Ill. – It was a busy day on the campus of Illinois Central College on Wednesday afternoon, as Men’s Soccer, Women’s Soccer, and Volleyball all were at home and all were taking on the same school, the Iowa Central Tritons.

The Men’s Soccer team got their home opener against the Tritons off to a fast start. Vincent Forment Garcia got a great chance at the goal just under three minutes into the game.

It seemed that the Cougars would have another chance soon after, this time on a corner kick, but it was to no avail. Iowa Central took possession off of that kick.

Another quality ICC shot came through off the foot of Evan Pfeifer, but was saved by the Iowa Central keeper to keep things at a 0-0 score.

Just moments later, the visiting Tritons suffered a string of two fouls in roughly as many minutes, and even after those fouls, a yellow card was assessed to one of their players within seconds of the most recent foul.

After even more quality chances inside the eighteen for ICC, one would eventually find the net, and that was a goal from Adrian Garcia at 26:07 into the game.

That’s when the Cougars appeared to have momentum. A couple of corner kicks within four minutes of each other seemed to be the best chances ICC would get before the break.

However, Forment Garcia had other ideas. After just missing that early opportunity, he redeemed himself with a goal with just 4:17 on the clock until halftime, giving ICC a 2-1 lead at the break.

The second half was slightly less active, but it didn’t take long out of the half for Iowa Central to erase that short-lived lead by the Cougars.

A yellow card was shown to an Iowa Central player just prior to the goal, but that was the only caution the game would see through the final tick off the clock.

The game-winning goal was scored with just 2:24 to go, and it came from Layee Kromah.

Kromah’s goal secured a 3-2 win for the 10th-ranked Cougars, and also gave ICC a (1-0-0) record to start the 2018 season.

Next up for the Cougars is a home game with South Suburban College on Sunday, August 26th, at 12:00 p.m.