This has been a big week for the Oskaloosa boys soccer team.

Then Indians recorded their first-ever two-game winning streak after beating Little Hawkeye Conference rivals Pella and Knoxville on back-to-back nights.

Then on Friday night, they picked up their first shutout in the brief history of the program with a 3-0 blanking of Grinnell at Vennard College and, in the process, ran its winning streak to a now-school-record three matches.

It also closed out a perfect 3-0 week for the Indians, now 4-6 on the season and 4-5 in LHC.

“We’re coming together at the right time,” Oskaloosa coach Mark Doll said. “Like I said at the beginning of the season, I thought this team has the ability to be special. We lost a couple of close ones that could have gone the other way, but a win on Monday (against Boone) gives us a tie for third in the conference. That’s pretty good,

“The exciting this is watching these kids play with hustle and we’re playing good defense. We’ve been shut out one time and we’ve been consistently scoring, maybe not scoring a lot of goals, but we’re consistently putting the ball in the net and we’re playing defense that keeping us in it. That’s a winning formula for soccer.”

Both teams went back-and-forth in the early part of the first half until the Indians were awarded a corner kick about midway into the half.

Taylor Schelker put the ball in play from the far corner and John Andersen headed the ball past the Grinnell goalkeeper to put Oskaloosa on top 1-0.

The score remained the same until the final minute of the half when Daniel Doll put the ball to the back of the net for an unassisted goal and a 2-0 lead at intermission.

One reason for the two-goal lead was the aggressiveness of the Indians in the first 40 minutes. They booted the ball on goal 15 times as the Indians repeatedly attacked the Tigers with shots.

“We had the game in control pretty much the whole game,” Mark Doll said. “They had some runs, but really didn’t get too much dangerous developments at all. They scored six goals last (Thursday) night against Boone so this team can score. Our defense played really, really well. That defense by Lucas Burns and Tim McHawes was really incredible tonight. Tim Harned played really well when he was in. Throw in (Chris) Farber and Austin Fender and Jordan Shrago in front really controlled the ball. We kept defensive pressure on their strikers the whole night. Very seldom did their strikers had the time to do much with the ball.”

Neither team scored in the second half until Daniel Doll tallied his second unassisted goal of the match in the 64th minute. 

The Indians continued to play stout defense, thanks to the goalkeeping of Wiebe Goodyk as he and the rest of the defense kept Tigers off the scoreboard.

Oskaloosa closes the regular season Monday with a home match against Boone then opens Class 1A substate play Thursday at Albia.

The way the Indians are playing now, teams better watch out for this bunch of warriors.