Armstrong is gold in Xavier's 3-2 OT win over Kennedy

CEDAR RAPIDS - The golden goal came on a golden play.

“A wonderful goal,” Cedar Rapids Xavier girls' soccer coach Doug Graham said of Kayla Armstrong's winner Thursday afternoon.

Striker Armstrong's strike from just inside the top of the penalty box with 3:31 left in the first overtime gave Class 2A top-ranked Xavier a 3-2 victory over 3A No. 5 Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

She took a pass from teammate Lauren Konchar after Konchar corralled a long ball down the left side from Annie Dale. Beautiful setup, beautiful finish.

“It was all my teammates,” Armstrong said. “Lauren Konchar had a great drive. We all dug deep through being tired, the wet field, the other two games we previously had that went overtime.”

Xavier (8-2) beat Muscatine in OT on Monday, so it has played a lot of extra soccer this week. A lot of winning extra soccer.

“We've been playing some tough games, been up and down a little bit,” Graham said. “What we're trying to focus on is coming together as a group and as a team. And as we say to all of them, this is honest and not political, if the girls give their very best out there and can look at me, themselves and each other and say ‘We did everything we could,' I really don't care about the score.”

Kennedy (7-2) was more or less playing with house money in overtime.

Forward Hannah Palomo's goal was sandwiched by goals from Armstrong and Marinna Schroud to make it a 2-1 Xavier lead at halftime. That's the way it stayed until sophomore Kaela Dickerman stunningly tied it with 4:13 left.

“I was right there to just get a touch on it. Lucky, kind of,” Dickerman said. “That was a big encouragement for everyone. Everyone was like ‘Come on, let's go. Let's win it.' We didn't fully win the game, but that goal kind of helped us think that we could have.”

The Cougars had a fine chance to go ahead with just under three to go, but Xavier goalkeeper Sarah Chichelly made a fine diving stop of a straight-on shot by Emily Feltes.