Jimmies notch school-record 12th victory

Talk about it

Getting the single-season win’s record out of the way quickly was a goal for the Jimmies.

They didn’t take long to do it, either.

Win No. 12 on the season, most ever by a JC men’s soccer team, came Tuesday in a 1-0 win over St. Ambrose (Iowa).

It was an impressive triumph for the 12-2 Jimmies, who handed the Fighting Bees their first home loss of the season.

“We talked about that before the game. Sometimes you get close to doing something like that and you end up stuck on a certain number and then it becomes a distraction,” JC coach Phillip Bohn said. “We knew it wouldn’t be easy to get that 12th win today because we played a quality opponent, but to get it done was a pretty nice achievement for our team.”

Matt Balshaw, a junior from Preston, England, scored just four minutes and 51 seconds into the game.

From there, it was back and forth between evenly matched sides.

“It wasn’t like we scored early and then we just hung on. I thought we played really well, and they played really well,” Bohn said. “It was a good, competitive game and we were able to come out on top.”

Balshaw had a typically strong game from this defensive position.

“He dominated. He really cleaned things up back there. … He was really good on balls in the air,” Bohn said.

It was a complete team effort.

“I thought we stayed really organized for the entire match. We didn’t have that let down period we’ve been prone to. It was a consistent effort,” he said. “We had that little something extra we’d been missing in terms of being able to finish off a match. … For us, in that regard, it was a really nice step forward.”

Thomas Cooke earned his fifth shutout of the season in goal. The Jimmies outshot the Fighting Bees (8-2).

Jamestown College faces a daunting weekend schedule as they return to Iowa to face 22nd-ranked Ashford on Saturday and Mount Mercy Sunday.

Jamestown College 1, St. Ambrose 0

Jamestown College 1 0 — 1

St. Ambrose 0 0 — 0

Scoring summary

First half

1, JC, Matt Balshaw (Jack Humphries), 4:51.

Second half

No scoring.

Keeper saves: JC, Thomas Cooke 1-1—2. St. Ambrose, 3-4—7.

Yellow cards: JC, Balshaw, Jade Johnson. St. Ambrose, Vince Rhodes, Tyler Clark.

Records: Jamestown College 12-2; St. Ambrose 9-5-1.

Sun sports editor Dave Selvig can be reached at (701) 952-8460 or by e-mail at dselvig@jamestownsun.com

Tags: sports, jimmies, soccer