PCM overwhelmed by Eagles in opener

MONROE — With three school districts coming together to form one varsity soccer team, communication is bound to be an issue among student-athletes who are unfamiliar with each other.

On top of that, the Prairie City-Monroe boys’ soccer team started four freshmen and three sophomores against Pella Christian on Thursday.

And the quicker Eagles were just too good.

The visitors scored four goals in the first 20 minutes and cruised to the 8-1 win in the season opener for both teams.

The Eagles led 7-0 at the break and one of their three foreign exchange students — Davi Simoes — completed a hat trick with 13 seconds to play in the game.

“They have three foreign exhange students and all three are very good,” PCM coach Darrin Telfer said. “Sometimes you have to give credit where credit is due. And Saturday won’t be any easier.”

The Mustangs will open play in the Newton Invitational against Des Moines Roosevelt on Saturday. But Thursday, PCM (0-1) had its hands full with the Eagles.

Simoes started the scoring with a goal just 4 minutes into the match and Alex Pringle made it 2-0 four minutes later. The lead grew to 4-0 following a goal from Adam Rooda and a secod from Simoes.

Gabriel Soler, another foreign exchange student, put in back-to-back goals to make it 6-0 with 11 minutes to play in the first half. Jacob Brouwer put a shot passed goalie Zac Van Waardhuizen with 6 seconds on the clock to give the Eagles a 7-0 lead at the half.

The Eagles (1-0) dominant first half included a 19-3 advantage in shots, 12-0 advantage in shots on goal and a 4-0 surplus in corner kicks.

Tony Merrill, a freshman who attends Lynnville-Sully, put PCM on the board with a little more than 12 minutes to play. He got behind a slew of Pella Christian defenders and had an open net to shoot at.

“That was a pretty big booster for us,” Telfer said. “We just need to see some guys step up. They didn’t quit though. It would have been easy to just fold up and quit.”

Telfer admitted there may be a communication problem early in the season as players from PCM, Colfax-Mingo and Lynnville-Sully try to get to know one another better.

“There are definitely some communication issues. We need to put our pride on the back burner and be able to listen to guys you don’t know sometimes,” Telfer said.

PCM faces Des Moines Roosevelt in Newton at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Benton and Newton (1-0) kick off the day at 10 a.m.

The losers meet in the third-place game at 1 p.m. and the championship game is slated for 2:30 p.m.