By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com
MUSKEGON – For the second straight night, the Muskegon Risers had their hands full against the best offensive team in the league.
The Risers put up a fight, overcoming an early three-goal deficit during the first half. But penalty trouble during the second quarter haunted Muskegon and it was not able to recover from the damage on Saturday night in an 8-6 loss to the first-place Iowa Demon Hawks at Trinity Health Arena.
Photo/Leo Valdez
“We never know what you are going to get in a second night of a back-to-back,” said Risers’ coach Michael Vollmer. “It’s a little hard on legs, but it was incredible to come back from three goals.”
The Risers are now 2-6 on the season and they have only just one home game left, which will be played in March.
Muskegon will go on the road next weekend for a pair of games against the Iowa Raptors on Friday and Saturday nights. Both games are slated to kickoff at 8:00 p.m.
The Risers are currently tied for third place in the Major Arena Soccer League 2 North Division with the St. Louis Ambush squad.
The difference in the game was the final eight minutes of the second quarter when the Risers were ticketed with multiple penalties and Iowa was awarded both a penalty kick and penalty shot.
The Demon Hawks only managed to outscore Muskegon 2-0 during that time frame, but ultimately became the difference in the game.
Photo/Leo Valdez
“We talked about making your play as how the referee calls the game,” Vollmer said. “It goes both ways, but I believe it was a nine-minute that we know we wish we could have had back. It could have really gotten away from us.”
The Demon Hawks scored the first three goals of the contest in just over a two-minute span to take a 3-0 lead. Joao Victor opened the scoring for Iowa at the 5:15 mark, then Bruno Henrique found the back of the net at 6:13, followed by a goal from Lucas Silva at the 7:25 mark.
Muskegon scored a pair of goals just 23 seconds apart in the second quarter to cut its deficit to 3-2. Michael Szaflarski notched his first goal of the season at 3:09, then Vincenzo Padilla found the back of the net for his second goal of the season at the 3:32 mark.
The Demon Hawks had a great chance to respond with a penalty kick at the 5:15 mark, but Muskegon goalkeeper Jake Lofgren stopped the shot. The Risers used the stopped penalty kick as momentum as they tied the contest 3-3 just 15 seconds later at the 5:30 mark of the second period. Miguel Flores scored his team-leading 14th goal of the season to complete the three-goal comeback effort.
Photo/Leo Valdez
The Demon Hawks stopped the momentum and retook the lead at 4-3 with a 4-on-3 power-play goal from Thiago Freitas 7:14 into the second quarter. Iowa added another goal on a penalty shot from Diego Pantuza at the 7:57 mark.
The Demon Hawks led 5-3 at halftime.
Iowa increased its lead to 7-3 early in the third quarter with goals from Pantuza (1:17) and Henrique (3:54).
The Risers responded at 4:58 on Flores’ second goal of the contest to cut their deficit to 7-4.
The teams exchanged late third-quarter goals as the Demon Hawks scored a goal from Luan Silva at the 11:06 mark while Micheal Schmidt notched his first of the season at 13:10.
The Demon Hawks led 8-5 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Risers scored a late fourth-quarter goal from Schmidt to cut their deficit to 8-6 with just over three minutes remaining. But Muskegon could not find a way to get another goal during the final moments of the contest.
