After starting off a two-game road trip with a painful loss to Iowa State, the Hawkeye soccer team rebounded nicely to thoroughly thump Colorado State Sunday.

Things started nicely enough for the Hawkeyes in Ames as sophomore Bri Toelle put Iowa up 1-0 23 minutes into the game on an assist from senior Cloe Lacasse. Iowa State mustered only 3 shots in the first half, and it seemed as if Iowa was in control of the game.

As it turned out, the Hawkeyes were not, and the second half was a nightmare for the Hawkeyes.

Looking at the stats, Iowa had a 7-6 advantage in shots and a 5-1 advantage in corner kicks.

“We dominated long portions of the game at times and displayed our best soccer of the year, especially in the first half,” Iowa head coach Dave DiIanni said in a release. “We got rattled after they scored and stopped playing and moving the ball on the ground, which allowed ISU to press us and make things difficult for us.

“We never did get our rhythm back until it was too late.”

The Hawkeyes were able to pick up it they left off on their adventure to the Centennial State.

The Hawks struck first at the 26:49 mark after senior Lacasse stole the ball from a Colorado State defender and sent a strike into the goal from six yards out.

Sixteen seconds later, Toelle took a pass from Lacasse and netted another goal for the Hawkeyes.

“Today, our goal as a team was to play with a consistent effort and focus throughout the game no matter how the games flow, and I thought we did that for the most part,” DiIanni said in a release.

Iowa led 2-0 at the half and had a 14-1 advantage in shots at that point. Colorado State, a second-year program, was overmatched and never had much of a chance against the Hawkeyes.

In an effort to prove this, Lacasse scored 50 seconds into the second half on an assist from Toelle which raised her season goal total to seven.

Senior Melanie Pickert scored on a header with about 25 minutes remaining to make the score 4-0 and finish off the Rams for good.

Junior keeper Hannah Clark picked up the win for Iowa in goal, making her first start of the season in her hometown.

Even with the solid victory, DiIanni thought they left something out on the field.

“After starting slow the first 15 to 20 minutes, we found success creating opportunities in the final ¹/3 and probably should have scored a few more goals,” DiIanni said in a release. “This was a good game to get a lot of players playing time and build a team cohesiveness going into Big Ten play.”

Follow @JordyHansen on Twitter for news, updates, and analysis about the Iowa soccer team.