Men’s soccer seeing ups, downs in early season

The men’s soccer season is well underway. After a grueling week of practice during spring break, the Tigers began to prepare new tactics and strategies for the season for the next few weeks after spring break.

The Tigers first game was last Thursday in Iowa City against Iowa City High School. After a weather delay, the game got underway. Unfortunately, after a hard-fought 80-minute battle, the Tigers fell 1-0.

The team didn’t get much time to rest, however, with a tournament with six other teams at Linn Mar High School all day Saturday. The Tigers had their first game at 10:30 a.m. against Vinton-Shellsburg High School, winning the game 3-0 with goals from junior Adrian Diaz, junior Steven Skidmore and senior Skylar Loper.

Skidmore, who moved to Cedar Falls over the summer, loved the feeling of scoring his first goal for his new school.

“It felt fantastic,” Skidmore said. “Scoring my first goal made me hungry to score more goals for CFHS this season.”

After a long break, the Tigers took the field again at 4:30 p.m. against Davenport Central High School. A win in this game would take the Tigers to the final of the tournament, which the Tigers accomplished. Goals from Diaz, senior Brady Weber and Loper, paved the way for a 3-1 victory to take the Tigers to a final against the hosts, Linn Mar. While Linn Mar had the majority of the day to rest after their first two games, the Tigers got 15 minutes. Partly due to fatigue, the Tigers fell to Linn Mar 7-1.

On Tuesday, however, the Tigers had another shot at Linn Mar, with the Lions coming to Cedar Falls to play the Tiger’s second game of the season.

Cedar Falls High School got on the scoresheet first with a well-placed penalty from Loper after Diaz was fouled in the box. The Tigers held the lead for about 25 minutes until Linn Mar scored three goals in quick succession right before the half ended. The game ended 3-1.

Junior captain Aaron Iehl looks forward to the upcoming games.

“We saw what we can do against teams of Linn Mar’s caliber,” Iehl said. “We have to keep that play up for the other upcoming games.”

The Tigers’ next game is Thursday, April 16 against Dubuque Senior High School at home.