Sekou Kromah

CEDAR RAPIDS — A two-goal halftime lead would eventually have been enough for the No. 12 Marshalltown Community College men’s soccer team to take care of the Mount Mercy junior varsity, but a seven-goal second half certainly did the trick.

MCC bombarded the Mount Mercy goal with 10 shots on net in the second half and finished with its highest scoring total in nearly a year. The Tigers last scored nine goals on Sept. 26, 2018, in a 9-0 win over Scott CC, and put up 11 goals two weeks prior in an 11-0 victory at Southeastern.

Seven different players scored goals for Marshalltown (5-1), with three of them recording their first goal of the season.

“Tonight’s game served us to prepare some things for conference play next week,” said MCC head coach Rafael Martinez. “I’m happy we were also able to come up with a convincing win while sharing minutes between most players on our roster.”

Freshman goalkeeper Bruno Fazzolari got his first minutes in net for the Tigers, making one save on two shots on goal to get his first career win.

Sophomores Kazuki Kimura and Kenlove Solon scored their first goals of the year, and freshman Gabriel Dias got his first collegiate goal as well.

Guilherme Pereira gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute on an assist from Marco Antonio Medeiros, and Solon converted a shot inside the box on a pass from Levi Vasconcelos to make it 2-0 in the 20th minute.

MCC manufactured just six shots — four on goal — in the first half before breaking loose after intermission.

“Our performance started slow, but we picked up the tempo as minutes went by, especially in the second half,” said Martinez, “hence the difference in the score in each period.”

Sekou Kromah scored 11 minutes into the second half and Jiroh Hatano got on the board two minutes later to give the Tigers a 4-0 lead before Mount Mercy notched its only goal.

Kimura, Dias and Kromah tallied in a span of six minutes to make it 7-1 MCC, and Matheus Pereira registered two goals in the last seven minutes to bring the score to its final.

Hatano finished with a goal and two assists, Kimura had his team-leading fifth assist, while Kotaro Hirokawa, Luis Albino and Cesar Mont added assists.

The Tigers take a week off before starting Iowa Community College Athletic Conference play with a road trip to Mason City for a Sept. 18 showdown with NIACC.

“We now turn our focus on to conference play, a conference that I believe will be as tight as ever,” Martinez said. “It’s challenging yet exciting to compete with so many quality programs in the ICCAC, and I cannot wait to get started.”