West Liberty's first state tourney run end in semis (photo gallery)

DES MOINES - Forgive him. He's a freshman.

West Liberty's Dalvi Acevedo (17, center) tries to kick the ball between Nevada's Nicholas Garvin (30, left) and John Jamison (19) in the second half of their Class 1A semifinal game at the state soccer tournament on Friday, June 1, 2012, at Cownie Soccer Complex in Des Moines. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

Nevada's Johordan Ritter was asked by a Des Moines area television station to talk about the second-half goal he scored Friday afternoon. It gave his team a 1-0 victory over West Liberty in a Class 1A state soccer semifinal.

Ritter just shrugged.

“I don't know what to say,” he said.

How about something like ‘It's great to be an underdog playing for a state title?' Nevada came into this tournament with a less-than-inspiring 11-7 record and No. 7 seed, but a pair of 1-0 wins has it playing top-seeded Waterloo Columbus today at noon.

The Cubs playing for a championship. Bet you never thought you'd hear that, right, Chicago baseball fans?

“They had more chances, moved the ball well,” said West Liberty Coach Mike Gunn.“We just couldn't generate enough offense to keep possession of the ball. I thought we did a pretty good job of trying to come back. We got a lot of chances at the end. We got here by holding on to leads. Our luck ran out.”

Ritter's goal came with 16:09 left. West Liberty (14-5-1) never really threatened seriously to tie it.

“I think fatigue set in for them a little bit,” Nevada Coach Bill George said. “Our guys were putting on a whole lot of pressure. We're used to playing on a field that's probably 20 yards longer. I think that was to our advantage a little bit. I thought our kids played great.”

West Liberty (14-5-1) plays Iowa City Regina today at noon in the Class 1A consolation game. This is the Comets' first state soccer tournament appearance, and they beat Solon in Thursday's quarterfinals, 1-0.

“During the last couple of practices, everything was pretty relaxed,” George said.“Basically we said ‘Let's go take care of business.' The guys played really well yesterday, and they played well again today. Life's good right now.”“You've got to hand it to them,” Gunn said. “We got beat, plain and simple.”