WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Tense moments preceded a weekend of wins for the Des Moines Menace.
Twice in a weekend, the Menace found themselves in trouble. During their exhibition match on Friday, Toledo United FC (Premier League of America) leveled with three second-half goals. Then, Saturday the Menace played their final league match of the season and the St. Louis Lions (Premier Development League) opened up the scoring at Valley Stadium. And twice in a weekend, the Menace took their matches with late winners: 4-3 Friday and 2-1 Saturday.
The Kum & Go Kup — a traveling trophy debuted in 2014 — started with Des Moines and PDL Heartland Division opponent Springfield. The Menace won the Kup in 2014 and 2015 before Springfield moved to the Mid-South Division of the PDL and rebranded to be the PDL’s U-23 team for St. Louis FC (no relation to St. Louis Lions). Are you following so far? Well, the replacement rival for the Kum & Go Kup is now Toledo FC.
And so, Friday, with the Kum & Go Kup on the line, Des Moines sped out of the gates to a 3-0 lead before halftime, capped off with a Ryan Masch goal in first-half stoppage time.
Regrouping in the locker room, Toledo came out firing in the second stanza. Starting in the 61st minute, Toledo leveled with three goals in 16 minutes. Tom Cowling put the visitors on level terms with his goal in the 77th minute to end the scoring for Toledo.
The game looked destined for a draw, until Chris Nkoghe rocketed a shot from the top of the penalty area to break the deadlock. The Menace held on for the 4-3 win.
Closing Out the Season
With the season coming to a close, Des Moines hosted the Lions with a chance at double-digit wins for the third straight season. After a scoreless first half, St. Louis put that in jeopardy with a goal in the 47th minute.
From there, the Menace settled into their game plan and came back stronger. Starting a goal direct from a free kick in the 64th minute from Ricky Hoegg and ending with a 68th minute breakaway goal by last week’s hero, Tommy Barlow, the Menace came back to finish out the season with a four-game unbeaten streak heading into playoffs next week.
This is the third consecutive year for Menace postseason play, starting with the 2014 PDL regular-season championship and culminating to this weekend’s Central Conference playoffs. The Menace has yet to make it out conference championship weekend in the previous two years, losing to the eventual PDL champion in each of the past two years.
At home in 2014, a sluggish start finished 2-0 to the Michigan Bucks in the conference championship. In 2015, playing at the Ultimate Soccer Arenas in Pontiac, Mich., the Menace fell to K-W United (Kitchner-Waterloo) late 3-2 in the conference semifinals.
Both the Bucks and K-W United will be at this year’s Central Conference playoffs, along with 2015 playoff participant, the Thunder Bay Chill. The Chill finished second after drawing four times in the final five games, including three straight.
Michigan took the PDL regular-season title for the second straight year with 36 points (12-2-0).
The playoffs begin next weekend at a site yet to be determined. PDL officials will release the location and dates Sunday afternoon. Des Moines will open with K-W United for a meeting in the third straight it the conference semifinals. Michigan gets Thunder Bay.
Check back to FiftyFive.One in the next week as we preview and recap the PDL Central Conference Championship.
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