April 25, 2024

Mustang girls fall in 2A regional opener

By Troy Hyde

Senior Camilla Schlosser makes a save against Oskaloosa during the Mustangs' 3-0 loss in girls regional tournament action on Thursday. Schlosser, who gathered this ball in just in front of the net, made 10 saves in the game. (Troy Hyde)

OSKALOOSA — Both Prairie City-Monroe High School soccer programs ended their seasons on the same field. And the deficit in both contests was three goals.

Three days after the Mustang boys fell 4-1 to Knoxville, PCM’s girls had their season ended by Oskaloosa as the Indians shut out the Mustangs 3-0 at Drost Field inside Lacy Recreation Complex during Class 2A Region 5 quarterfinal action.

“The girls worked hard for 80 minutes. They don’t give up no matter what the score is,” PCM coach Rick Drabek said. “Our record doesn’t show the wins and losses. The record doesn’t speak for how good this team was. We played tough teams and fought in every game.”

Lindy Slocum scored the Indians’ first two goals, and Mary Nelson capped the victory with a goal in the 79th minute. It was Oskaloosa’s fourth shutout victory this season.

Oskaloosa puts its three-match win streak on the line against 10th-ranked Norwalk in the regional semifinals at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in Norwalk.

The Mustangs had a tough time penetrating the Indians’ defense. They took just eight shots in the game and only two were on goal.

“We weren’t as aggressive as we were the other night against Centerville,” Drabek said.

“We tried to move a couple more people up top in the second half to give us more action. The gaps we thought would be there just weren’t. They closed the gaps down and we weren’t playing the ball like we needed to. We weren’t connecting on our passes.”

On the flip side, Oskaloosa peppered senior goalkeeper Camilla Schlosser with 28 shots and Schlosser faced 13 shots on goal, 10 of which she stopped.

Oskaloosa (8-6) led 1-0 at halftime. Slocum’s first goal of the match came in the 11th minute.

PCM (3-8-1) held up defensively for most of the night, but the Indians took advantage of the few times they got behind the Mustangs’ back line.

Slocum’s second goal came in the 47th minute. The match remained 2-0 until Nelson’s goal in the final two minutes made it 3-0.

Nelson was set up perfectly by a well place centering pass by Oskaloosa’s best player, Aleeya Cheney.

Heading into year two as head coach, Drabek wants his returning players to get more touches on the ball in the offseason.

“I’d like to see more of the girls get involved in the fall with club soccer,” Drabek said. “It can be hard because of other sports, but I will try to get some open field time in the summer to play and kick the ball around. We’ll do some open gyms this winter, too.”