Exhibition Record: Upper Iowa (2-1); Coe College (0-1)
Recap: When arriving on campus to coach the men's soccer team at Upper Iowa, Jason Carlson's first line of business was to bring in competition. That meant he would persuade a few transfers to join the team, and he would connect with any talented incoming freshmen to keep them on the squad. Ryan Pinkerton was one of those freshmen brought to Upper Iowa to push for playing time.
On Thursday night against visiting Coe College, Pinkerton showed off his skills and impressed his coach. The Apple Valley, CA native scored the Peacocks first goal and later dished an assist to Leandro Pena to set up the third and final goal of the day for UIU in a 3-0 victory in the Peacocks final exhibition match of the season.
"I thought Pinkerton made an immediate impact for us," Carlson said. "He entered the game and scored within the first two minutes he was in there. He was involved in all of our other goals too. He did a good job being in the right place at the right time and it was good to see him get on the board today."
From the get-go, the Peacocks seemed to be feeling the effects of a hot August night. Yet, insert Pinkerton into the lineup and the offense lit it up.
"I felt like we were trying to do too much in the first thirty minutes of that game – we weren't as clean as I wanted us to be," Head Coach Jason Carlson said. "We made a couple adjustments and simplified everything and the guys responded. They took more risks and they were dangerous – that was the key."
After Pinkerton got the Peacocks on the board in the first half, Andres Cuesta added to their lead. On a cross from Rhys Williams, Cuesta connected on a header and set the ball to the back right post to give UIU a 2-0 lead.
Pena rounded out the scoring with just over 20 minutes left in the game. Pinkerton found Pena streaking toward the goal and after collecting the pass, Pena put a juke move on a defender from 20-yards out and scorched a ball to the back of the net.
The defense was also on fire. Coe struggled to get the ball past midfield and into scoring position and the UIU defense held for thier first shutout this preseason.
"We can take a lot of positives away from this preseason," Carlson summed up. "I thought this game was our best defensively, for sure. That was great to see because we rotated our backline a bit more than normal."
Carlson also singled out senior goalkeeper Jordan Bell saying his distribution was solid, that he showed really good hands and that he attacked balls in the air.
The Peacocks will now begin to prepare for their regular-season opener in Kirksville, MO. on Sept. 8. UIU will visit Truman State with kickoff slated for 2 p.m.
"We're going to watch a lot of film this week and break down our performance," Carlson concluded. "We need to find out where we can improve as a team and we need to establish what we do well. And then, we just keep building – it's still a young team and so it's nice that we have just over a week until our next game. Truman State presents a tough challenge. They have a really good team this year, but we're just going to focus on what we are doing and our strengths."
Standouts: Upper Iowa: Goals: Pinkerton (1), Cuesta (1), Pena (1). Assists: Williams (1), Pinkerton (1).
Up Next: The Peacocks will head south to face Truman State in Kirksville, Missouri for the 2013 season-opener. Game time is slated for 2 p.m. on Sept. 8.
