IIAC 2013

[KICKIN95]

how many assists does that guy have!

Believe it or not according to their home page stats he only had 1 assist before tonights match.

[Durantula]

seeing this game that seems unbelievable to me haha. are they not giving him assists of throwins???

[Dutch Touch]

I don't know where you were looking, but according to Hope's athletic page he has 8 assists on the year. He has definitely racked up his fair share of assists over his 4 years.

[Cheesehead Henry]

It will be interesting to see Wartburg's matchup with Hope considering their confidence has to be after their throttling of Dominican tonight. Given the fact that Hope also has a lot of confidence from beating an Oshkosh team that was favored to win that game and even the quad itself. Look for Hope to take advantage of the plethora of throw ins they'll undoubtedly take advantage of.

[KICKIN95]

I don't know where you were looking, but according to Hope's athletic page he has 8 assists on the year. He has definitely racked up his fair share of assists over his 4 years.

I was looking at Logan Sikkenga's assists instead of Grant Neil's, my bad.

[PaulNewman]

Can one of you IIAC guys explain why so many strong teams out of Iowa?  Seriously, is soccer really big in Iowa?  Until a few weeks ago I thought Loras was the only show in town, but obviously Wartburg and Luther are really good as well.

[PaulNewman]

Luther has 38 rostered players, Wartburg has 44-45, and Loras 28 plus a whopping 36 on the reserve squad (64 total!).  How do they keep so many involved when they aren't playing?

[gustiefan04]

The IIAC (and MIAC) play a full reserve/JV schedule. Allows the programs to keep players and help them develop. You'd be surprised by the number of players who start with the reserves and work their way into Varsity roles as their careers progress. 

There is a good amount of quality youth soccer around the Des Moines area. Also the IIAC schools draw pretty heavily from the Chicagoland, which is one of the largest (and strongest) youth soccer markets in the country.

[Durantula]

There's a lot of talent because Iowa has only one D1 school (Drake), and I don't think Minnesota has any?? so a lot of the good iowa and minnesota kids want to stay somewhat close to home and go d3

[Cheesehead Henry]

You have to remember that Iowa is the center of huge soccer hot spots in the Midwest. They're surrounded by St. Louis to the south, Kansas City to the west, the Twin Cities to the north, and Milwaukee and Chicago to the East. Get solid traditions of excellence at schools like Loras, Luther, and Wartburg, it makes recruiting those kids pretty easy. Not to mention Des Moines and the Cedar Valley Area in Iowa itself.

[KICKIN95]

Hope seems to be feeding off of yesterdays win against UWO, they are getting the better of Wartburg. I have a feeling that will change shortly.

[KICKIN95]

Drake is the only DI varsity program in Iowa. Loras last played them in preseason in 2011 and beat them 4-3. Loras also played Drake in 2010 when Drake was ranked 14th in the nation and Drake squeaked out a 1-0 victory over the 7th ranked Duhawks. I think that is a testament to how good DIII teams really are in relation to DI.

[lastguyoffthebench]

I know Messiah used to play D1 schools in spring often and get positive results.  Maybe even Maryland recently, just can't confirm/remember...

The top 5-10 historically good D3 programs can run with the top 10-25 in D1... after that, the drop-off is too significant.



Anyways, this Hope game is a throw in away from a 1-0 win...

[lastguyoffthebench]

And the mistake by the GK proves to be costly there...  Great finish by Wartburg

[KICKIN95]

Hope's keeper made a a very stupid choice by rolling the 4 Ball 25 yds out and paid dearly. Wartburg blasts a goal to go up 1-0.