Dyersville Beckman puts pressure on Sioux Center

DES MOINES - Everybody on the sideline feels it.

Pressure on the Dyersville Beckman boys' soccer team to collect a third straight state championship is self-imposed, and can't be ignored. But what the No. 1 Trailblazers do so well is channel that pressure into something it can use.

No. 8 Sioux Center felt it all afternoon.

'We're used to controlling most of the game but they did a good job going back and forth with us with possession,” senior Brady Arens said after Beckman's 5-1 Class 1A quarterfinal win. 'We just knew we had to stick with it and if we kept putting pressure on them, they were going to make the mistake.”

That first mistake for the Warriors (7-10), who made their first state tournament this weekend, took awhile to materialize. Sioux Center countered seven shots on goal in the first half, but Arens got Beckman (18-1) on the board in the 27th minute from the top of the key.

Six minutes after Arens' strike, freshman Tom Jaeger notched his third goal of the season from nearly the same spot. The key, Jaeger said, were the through balls slipping past the Warriors defenders.

'They were trying to get to the corners and cross,” Jaeger said. 'The through balls went to the top of the key and we shot from there. That worked pretty successfully.”

The floodgates opened early in the second half when junior Drew Boekholder netted a goal in the 42nd minute on an assist from senior Riley LeGrand.

Senior Ben Palmer scored on a penalty kick in the 47th minute and freshman Adam Wessels scored from the top of the key in the 61st minute. Sioux Center's lone goal came off a free-kick header by freshman Jose Martin in the 70th minute.

'We were a little bit behind with slower passes but overall that wasn't too bad,” said Beckman Coach Mirek Laskowski. 'We controlled the whole game, they probably had three or four shots on goal, which is average for our team.

'It takes more than two players with good scoring numbers to win against us.”

Beckman has been a fixture at the state tournament through most of this decade. Thursday, Laskowski said, was just the first step in ultimately winning a third straight title.

'It's the one reason we're in Des Moines,” Laskowski said. 'We want a state championship title again. It's nice to have three in a row, yes, you're absolutely right.”

No. 4 Iowa City Regina, which fell to Beckman in last year's semifinals, awaits the Trailblazers again Friday at noon.

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