2 late goals allow Kennedy to stun Ankeny for 3A soccer championship (photo gallery)

MUSCATINE - What you heard from soccer-niks a lot this weekend is how one of the great things about their sport is that games can literally change in a minute.

Or a minute and five seconds in this case.

"I can barely wrap my mind around this," said Hannah Palomo after Cedar Rapids Kennedy's stunning 2-1 comeback win over Ankeny in Saturday night's Class 3A state championship soccer game. "We were true underdogs. I could not be happier."

Palomo ripped home a shot in the penalty area to the right of the goal with 17:05 left to put Kennedy (17-4) up for good in a game they trailed throughout and were outplayed in throughout. Her heroics came barely more than a minute after sophomore Kaela Dickerman poked in a loose ball in a scrum in front of the goal.

This was an absolutely shocking turnaround.

"Once Kaela got that first goal, you could just feel everyone's energy increase so much," Palomo said.

"Both of the goals were against the run of play," said Kennedy Coach Andrew McKnight. "We were defending most of the game, and we knew that we would. We just had to perservere."

The belief by many going in was this was Ankeny's tournament hands (or feet) down. They were last year's 3A champs, have seven seniors who will play college soccer, were ranked as high as fourth nationally by ESPN HS this spring and rode a 31-game win streak into Saturday's game.

After Sydney Hedrick scored at the 15:50 mark of the first half for a 1-0 Ankeny lead, it appeared there'd be no drama here. But Kennedy's defense bent but did not break, thanks in large part to some nice saves from all-tournament goalkeeper Allie Hutcheson.

"Really nerveracking," Hutcheson said. "Ankeny had a few really good shots at the end that I had to come out and stop. There was a lot of nervous tension built up."

This is Kennedy's second girls' soccer championship in four years. The Cougars beat third-ranked Iowa City West, second-ranked Bettendorf and top-ranked Ankeny, in order, here.

The Cinderella squad will be honored in a ceremony on the Cougar Commons on the school's south campus Sunday night at 6:30. Maybe by then they'll have realized they pulled off one of state soccer's bigger upsets.

And all it took was a minute and five seconds.

Here is the 3A all-tournament team:

Kaela Dickerman (Cedar Rapids Kennedy) - Captain

Allie Hutcheson (Cedar Rapids Kennedy)

Tory Harman (Cedar Rapids Kennedy)

Hannah Palomo (Cedar Rapids Kennedy)

Maggie Riley (Ankeny)

Aubree Larson (Ankeny)

Amber Nieland (Ankeny)

Megan Goodson (Waukee)

Stephanie Williams (Waukee)

Lisa Trizzino (Bettendorf)

Katie Moore (Bettendorf)