Following their 4-0 win against the Northern Iowa Panthers, the Iowa State Cyclones faced off against the Drake Bulldogs in Ames, in their final exhibition game before the beginning of the regular season.

Two first-half goals were all that was needed for the Cyclones to beat the Bulldogs as they beat the Bulldogs 2-0 on Saturday.

Iowa State struck first and early as team co-captain junior midfielder Tavin Hays rifled a shot from the left side of the penalty box, over Drake’s goalkeeper, Kelsie Stone, found the upper right corner and gave the Cyclones a 1-0 lead in the fourth minute.

“It was a team effort from everyone cheering me on to the throw-in,” Hays said.

After the Cyclones kept forcing the issue offensively and it paid dividends. 

Freshman forward Mira Emma added to the Cyclones lead when she took a shot from outside the penalty box and scored in the 42nd minute.

“I saw the defender coming right up on me, I took a few touches, and I knew I needed to get the shot off,” Emma said. “

In both exhibitions against Northern Iowa and Drake, Emma has scored a goal.

“Mira has really high soccer IQ and she’s very calm and composed,” Iowa State head coach Tony Minatta said. “We knew how good she was coming in, but I didn’t realize how good she was going to be and moving her to forward has been good for her.”

Iowa State held a 2-0 lead at halftime.

On both sides of the pitch, the Cyclones were dominant as they outshot the Bulldogs six to one and allowed zero shots on goal.

Drake could not get any offensive momentum against Iowa State and Iowa State defeated Drake 2-0.

The Cyclones outshot the Bulldogs 14-4 in shots taken and 6-2 in shots on goal.

In their exhibitions games against Northern Iowa and Drake, Iowa State scored six goals combined and allowed zero goals.

“The defensive line is super organized right now and they are attacking hard,” Minatta said. “A lot of the issues in the past has been with ball pressure, but right now we have two lines of four defenders that have a good mentality about them and were determined not to give up any easy goals this year.”

The Cyclones played well defensively despite the fact they were without their starting goalkeeper, junior Dayja Schwichtenberg on Saturday, who went down with an injury in Wednesday’s game against Northern Iowa.

Despite having to sit out on Saturday, Schwichtenberg’s injury is not believed to be serious.

“We held her out because we wanted to be sure she would be with us on the California trip,” Minatta said. “She’s in a place now where she’s going to be back training with the team tomorrow and will be a full go on Tuesday.

Iowa State will travel to Los Angeles, California, to face the fourth-ranked UCLA Bruins on Aug 23. 9 p.m.