Cedar Rapids Kennedy falls to Ames in state soccer quarterfinals, 6-1

DES MOINES - Emily Sass sat on the bench with ice taped around her ankle and watched.

Contributions from the Cedar Rapids Kennedy senior happened early in a Class 3A quarterfinal matchup against Ames, but, a tweaked ankle kept her out of the last three-fourths of the game.

Kennedy's struggles, however, surfaced long before that. Things were moving a little fast for the young Cougars (13-6) squad in its 6-1 loss to the Little Cyclones (15-3).

'I think they just played their game and we played a little panicked and a little nervous,” said Kennedy Coach Homer Screws. 'At the end of the day I don't think we were prepared for the pressure of being at state with only two returning players from last year at varsity spots.

'A lot of inexperience, but at the end of the day we'll build from it.”

Sass netted a short goal in the 3rd minute, but Ames' Grace Nelson responded three minutes later with a goal of her own. Nelson netted two more goals in the first half and another in the second.

'You're always going to have an off day. It just sucked that it had to be today,” Sass said. 'It's over now and we move on. We struggled connecting passes, we struggled shooting. We didn't get very many shots off so that didn't help. Overall it just wasn't our day.”

Outside of Sass' goal Kennedy's offensive threats were few and far behind while Ames applied pressure through open runs at the Cougars' goal. Ames also had scores from Hartley Christensen and Jayna Wanamaker.

'I think they connected the ball really well,” said sophomore Emily Waterhouse. 'They met a lot of good runs behind us. I was just really disappointed in our back line, we really didn't drop off as much as we should have. We were really flat and I didn't like that. They just got past us.”

Screws, who led the Cougars to three state appearances in his previous tenure at Kennedy, returned in mid-February to a roster loaded with young talent. Freshman Amurie Coder ended the year second in goals scored (17) and Waterhouse had a team-high eight assists.

Kennedy loses five seniors, including starters Sass, Brittany Bell and Alexis Hull, off its 24-player roster.

'This door closes and a new door opens,” Screws said. 'We'll start working toward next season and what are we going to do to be in a better position to advance further next year. They want to win, they like to win so it's just putting the work in and learning from the experience.”

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