The Iowa Falls-Alden girls soccer team finished strong in a 6-0 win at Webster City Thursday, as aired on 99 The Wave. The Cadets had somewhat of a slow start, with Adessa Gillespie scoring a goal midway through the first half for a 1-0 halftime lead. But some position adjustments gave the Cadets a boost in the second half. Grace Hartford and Gillespie scored about one minute apart within the first 12 minutes of the second half. Gillespie and Kymri Koenigsfeld added additional goals, and Demi Beaubien scored on a free kick to widen the margin and finish the win.
“It was a frustrating first half,” Head Coach Morgan Vierkandt says. “Coming off of a pretty bad one on Monday against Waverly-Shell Rock, it was nice to kind of get out there and we got an early-ish goal in the first half, which took a little of the tension off. It was real frustrating in the first half. They really packed in tight. They played a lot of defense. They’re a very much improved team over the last few years. So it was frustrating and then, made some halftime adjustments, moved some people around, got them in different spots and then we were able to really open it up and a couple of individual runs, really topped the game off. The scoreline didn’t really reflect how frustrated we were in the first half.”
Gillespie and Hartford say they were able to find a better rhythm in the second half.
“We were trying to pass in the midfield a lot, and not looking for the long passes,” Gillespie says. “And then in the second half I feel like once Morgan told us that we needed to do those long passes we got that.”
“It’s definitely a big switch playing on turf and then playing on grass, and it’s really hard to make that transfer over,” Hartford says. “But I think we learned to accept it and we learned how to move past that and obviously got more shots on goal.”
The Cadets (4-1, 4-0 NCC) will return to action Monday by hosting Garner Hayfield Ventura.
The boys soccer team fell 6-1 at home to Webster City. After giving up four goals in the first half, the Cadets got their only goal in the second half. They’ll return to action Monday at Garner Hayfield Ventura.
Interview with Adessa Gillespie, Abby Janssen and Grace Hartford:
Morgan Vierkandt interview:
