Rinderknechts shine as No. 7 Hawks give No. 3 City High first loss

CEDAR RAPIDS - Cedar Rapids Prairie's defense withstood Iowa City High's initial barrage of shots and then Team Rinderknecht took over the offense Wednesday as the seventh-ranked Hawks dealt No. 3 City High its first loss of the season, 4-0, at Prairie's John Wall Field.

'I don't think any of us really expected this but everybody wanted to come out and play and play hard and get a win because taking that loss at Linn-Mar, coming here and proving ourselves was really the key to tonight's game,” Seth Rinderknecht said.

Prairie's victory created a three-way tie atop the Mississippi Division in the Mississippi Valley Conference with Prairie, City High and Dubuque Hempstead all with 7-1 records.

Cedar Rapids Xavier's team comes in right behind them with a 6-2 record.

Defensive breakdowns and misjudgments led to City High's 3-0 first-half deficit.

Seth Rinderknecht scored on a penalty kick in the 21st minute after third-string City keeper Daniel Echa fouled Logan Rinderknecht on a run.

'It was a big call at the time, but he did clip me in the box,” Logan said.

'He knew it was a foul. He told me it was a foul.”

City High Coach Jose Fajardo disputed the call.

'It changed the game, and they took advantage of it,” he said. 'We need to learn a lesson.”

Just two minutes later, Logan Rinderknecht scored on a beautiful cross from the right side from Stephen Fritz.

In the 30th minute, Echa tried to clear the ball but his kick popped up and Logan Rinderknecht was at the top of the box for a nearly open shot.

'He followed Steve Fritz over to the right and I kind of noticed that, so I bumped it into the corner where he wasn't,” Logan Rinderknecht said.

Seth finished the scoring five minutes into the second half by scoring on a 40-yard free kick that eluded Tomek's leap.

The Hawks, who improved to 9-1, completed their ninth shutout.

The top two keepers were out of action with injuries for City High (11-1).

Fajardo bemoaned his team's inability to score on all of its early chances.

'It should have been 4 or 5 to zero in the first 20 minutes of the game and they ended up not only winning the game but embarrassing us a little bit,” he said. 'We have to put games away.”