Comets get offensive in home finale victory

After two straight scoreless draws, the Western Iowa Tech men's soccer team unleashed five goals to beat North Iowa Area in Saturday's home finale.

The Comets (9-5-4) beat the Trojans 5-1 and gave four sophomore players a victorious farewell as the first-year program's season winds down.

"Nice to send our four sophomore players off with a big win, and the support on this day was great from many WIT staff members and departments," head coach Alex Scheuler said.

The win clinched seventh place in the ICCAC standings for the Comets, who also finish the season 6-2-1 at home.

Ben Shields scored the lone goal of the first half on a penalty kick in the 21st minute. WIT's attacked turned on the pressure in the second half and capitalized with goals by Aran VIva Hernandez (59'), Edwin Garibay (73'), Tyler Witter (74') and Nhlakanipho Ngubane (82').

"Great to have 5 different guys score, when heading into the match we had been struggling a bit in front of goal," Scheuler said. "Nice to finally put away some of the type of chances we had missed putting away this past Wednesday at Iowa Central."

Gabriel Avellan and Witter picked up one assist each.

Though Victor Goscinksi missed his third consecutive clean sheet, the sophomore keeper stopped seven of eight shots on goal, the lone score coming at the 75-minute mark.

The Comets' season finale comes against No. 3-ranked Iowa Lakes at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Spencer.

"We have nothing to lose. We just want to show well, compete hard, and play to the best of our ability," Scheuler said.