Mt. Pleasant, IA- East Lake Park already had a reputation of being a perilous environment for visiting teams—even the home team has acknowledged its unpleasantries—but that was amplified in Monday’s home conference opener against Fairfield with a prevailing wind helping the Panthers glide to a 3-2 victory.
At the time of kick-off, the wind was bustling at 22 miles per hour with gusts north of 30 miles per hour. With an expansive space allowing unadulterated access to the wind, the advantage rested with the team going towards the north goal. Mt. Pleasant started with the disadvantage, which was not a surprise for Mt. Pleasant’s head coach Rocco Russo,
“Dylan [White] took the side that didn’t have the wind to start the game. He said it was strategic, so it looks like it worked out.”
For most of the first half, it appeared that the blustering winds was not going to be idyllic for either team with the score locked at zero; until the Trojans managed to find an opening right before halftime and took an early 1 to 0 lead into the break.
These two teams have become accustomed with narrow finishes as the previous six matches had been decided by two goals or less, including a 1-1 tie last April that saw Mt. Pleasant score a late goal to ruin the upset chance for the Trojans.
Despite the experience in these tight showdowns, it was a melancholy mood at halftime,
“Well, they came over and they were a little down on themselves because they felt like they definitely could have made a play on that,” expressed coach Russo. “But it’s early on in the season, and we’re making mistakes, and I think they’re going to clean those up. We are going to clean those up, and we’re going to keep pushing forward.”
But the now the wind was at Mt. Pleasant’s back, and they were quick to take advantage. Xachary LeBlanc, the First Team All-SEC goalie last year, was instrumental in keeping the pressure on the Trojan defense with long passes down the pitch allowing for quick strikes on offense.
The first goal for Mt. Pleasant happened within 10 minutes of the second half starting as Dylan White found a streaking Asa Rose on the right side of the field and Rose blasted it top left corner to even the game at one goal apiece. However, that tied score would not hold up for long as a Panther foul in the goalie box presented Cormac Van Pelt a penalty shot to retake the lead.
One shot later and Fairfield was back in the driver’s seat, 2 to 1.
Still, the Mt. Pleasant offense had found its rhythm by this point and started peppering the goal. A header from Isaiah Lange and a patient shot from the slot by White gave Mt. Pleasant their first lead of the night and the eventual final of the contest, 3-2. For coach Russo, it has been great relying on an offense that is averaging 6.3 goals through the first four games of the season,
“Yeah, our guys feel confident in their shot, and all that starts with passing the ball and making good passes and finding the guy that can take the shot. We’ve got about five or six guys that are not scared to pull the trigger, and when they do, things can happen, especially on a windy day like this.”
The win put the Panthers tied atop the SEC standings at 2-0 and 3-0-1 for the year, while Fairfield fell to 2-1 on the year and 1-1 in conference play. Fairfield will take on Central Lee tonight at 7 pm, while Mt. Pleasant will travel to Washington on Thursday, April 16th, at 5 pm.
As the Panthers attempt to defend their conference title from last year, coach Russo is still looking for his team to hit the next gear,
“I’d like us to get a little bit mentally stronger. We’re a team that does not like something negative to happen, and if something negative happens right away, it takes us a few minutes to regroup and get going, and then once positive stuff starts falling, then it’s like the floodgates open and we start playing our soccer. We need to just start the game like that. We need to start with the mentality of we’re the big fish in the pond and we’re going to go get it.”