The No. 16 ranked Iowa Mennonite School boys soccer team came up short in the opening round of the 2019 state tournament in Des Moines Friday. The sixth seeded IMS was beaten by three seed Sioux Center 5-1. The Warriors found the first two goals of the game, beating the IMS defense in the 8th and 14th minutes to build a 2-0 lead. The score would stay that way going into half. In the second half, IMS came out with a push and grabbed momentum when they got on the board. Jacob Boller sent a ball forward to Drew Blauvelt who beat the keeper and his defender and dribbled in a goal.

With their lead trimmed to one Sioux Center responded with a push of their own and in the 55th minute the Warriors were awarded a penalty kick for a handball in the box. They capitalized to extend the advantage to 3-1. IMS tried to push up to get the offense going but the Warriors made them pay in the back end with a pair of goals in the game’s last 10 minutes.

IMS had three shots on goal offensively. Blake Bontrager made seven saves in goal. With the loss, IMS wraps up their season at 12-5 after back-to-back trips to state. Sioux Center advances to Saturday’s state semifinals where they will meet Waterloo Columbus.