AJ Patterson's second-half hat trick sends Washington to substate final

CEDAR RAPIDS – The draw favors Cedar Rapids Washington. That's a different feeling for some of these Warriors.

Kennedy frazzled 10th-ranked Washington a bit in a scoreless first half at Kingston Stadium on Wednesday, but Washington re-grouped, played its game and advanced to the Class 3A, substate 5 final, 3-0, behind an AJ Patterson hat trick.

Washington (12-5) is the favorite in this substate – where it meets No. 16 Prairie at noon Saturday – unlike last season's double-overtime loss to eventual state champion Linn-Mar.

It played like it in the first 20-plus minutes, keeping the ball in Kennedy's half and creating chances that were missing the final touch.

'After that, I think we started to get a little nervous and uptight because we hadn't scored yet,' head coach JP Graham said. 'So we started not to play our style and we got outside of our normal rhythm.'

There were no major adjustments in the second half, only better communication and quality. Patterson kept finding space and the Cougars couldn't hold him back much longer.

Patterson darted into the box from the left wing and fired past Kennedy keeper Nathaniel Sheeley for the breakthrough in the 46th minute.

With Kennedy chasing the game, Emmanuel Hidalgo-Wohllben drilled a dangerous cross in front of goal that Patterson tapped home in the 69th. Then Patterson capped it three minutes later by going around a drawn-out Sheeley and cooly finishing with an open net.

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The junior midfielder couldn't recall filling up the stat sheet in such a way at the prep level, only in club matches.

'I didn't expect to get the hat track,' Patterson said. 'I expected to get one or two shots off, but I wasn't for sure about scoring. I worked my butt off.'

Patterson's speed and ability to take on defenders made him difficult for Kennedy to track.

'For AJ, it's all about just trying to get the maximum amount of touches with him having enough energy,' Graham said. 'When he starts taking people on, he can run out of gas pretty quickly because he's running full-fled sprints back and forth. It's all about finding the right opportunities for him and trying to get him a break.'

Kennedy (7-9) had a lively stretch in the final 15 minutes of the first half with a pair of especially good chances. Luis Granadillo's open strike at the top of the box beat Reed Tovey but went just wide. Another forced a save.

'That's when we needed it,' Kennedy co-head coach Mike Robertson said. 'If we could have just grabbed one of those early, that would have put the pressure on. It's like anything, you've got to put the pressure on the favored team.'

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Washington won't be an overwhelming favorite in the final at Kingston; it beat Prairie (9-8), a 2015 state qualifier, 3-2 in April. The Warriors were in Des Moines as recently as 2014. That third-place team had a handful of this year's seniors on the roster.

'We like to think that the way we coach, we peak at the right time of year,' Graham said.

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