Men's soccer starts strong in program debut

The Western Iowa Tech men's soccer team showed flashes of the success to come while falling 3-1 to Central Community College in the program's debut match on Thursday.

"I thought there were moments we looked very sharp, and then others where we looked like a very inexperienced group as any first year program would," head coach Alex Scheuler said.

Freshman forward Aran Hernandez became the first Comet to find the back of the net with his goal in the 14th minute off of Andre Pinherio's aerial cross. The momentous goal gave the Comets a 1-0 lead until the Raiders tied the game at 1-1 9 minutes later.

Central took a 2-1 lead into halftime with another scored 4 minutes before the end of the period, and netted an insurance goal in the 81st minute.

Scheuler said his team dominated play in the second half despite not being able to generate another fruitful scoring chance.

"You could tell that we were attempting to cope with the speed and physical nature of the college game in a few different aspects," Scheuler said. "The beautiful thing about not playing our best in game No. 1 -- we have many things to improve upon that we saw take shape right before our eyes."

The Comets next play at Dakota Wesleyan of the NAIA on Monday, August 21.