City High makes it all Iowa City final in 3A

DES MOINES - Move this game to the University of Iowa's soccer complex. Move all of Saturday's state championship games to the University of Iowa's soccer complex.Five of the six finalists are from Eastern Iowa, three from Iowa City. For the second time in four years, the Class 3A match is the Battle of the Boot, Battle of the Soccer Shoe, whatever you want to call it.It's Iowa City High and Iowa City West. Enough said."We just talked about it," said City High's Fernando Pacheco, after a 2-1 win over Johnston in a heated 3A semifinal Friday afternoon at Cownie Park. "No one is going to stop us from our dream. Our dream from the beginning has been to win state. At this point, it doesn't matter who we face. We're going to go for that title."They'll see a bunch of familiar faces trying to stop them from obtaining it. Iowa City West took down Cedar Rapids Kennedy in its semifinal to set up Iowa City Soccer-palooza, Part II.West beat City High for the 2010 championship, 3-1, also the result from their game this regular season. By the way, Iowa City Regina is in the 1A finals."This is a huge rivalry," said City High coach Jose Fajardo. "But this is what you want to play for. If you can play in the championship game and play against another team from your town, that's a good thing for these kids. Hopefully we can represent ourselves a little bit better than we did last time."Pacheco had both goals for City High (17-2), including a penalty kick late in the first half that was the difference. His goal just 1:11 in put the Little Hawks up immediately.Johnston (19-2) tied it in the 35th minute on a Ryan Harlow PK."Probably one of the toughest games we played the whole year," said Pacheco, a Western Illinois recruit. "Everyone worked hard, and we made those two goals stand up."This was a physical encounter with City High players regularly hitting the field, and Johnston fans regularly complaining about them flopping. It was a foul against City High's Luke Mennen in front of the goal on a corner kick that led to Pacheco's penalty kick winner.There was a verbal exchange at the end of the game between a couple of Johnston players and Fajardo. The game officials had to be escorted from the field by Des Moines police."This happens in every competitive game," Pacheco said. "These are very heated games. Everybody wants to win."Fajardo was asked what Johnston players were yelling at him."I don't know," he said. "Somebody was talking about how they heard something about something. I don't know exactly what he was saying. I was asking him what happened, and he got upset. I don't know what happened."