Iowa City High misses opportunities, falls in penalty kicks to Ames

DES MOINES - There wasn't a worse enemy for the Iowa City High boys' soccer team than themselves.

That description surfaced early this season. The Little Hawks dropped three-straight games before winning 10 in a row. Some of those less desirable traits resurfaced in a Class 3A quarterfinal loss to Ames, 1-1 (4-2 PKs).

Missed opportunities ruled the day.

'We are to blame for our own mistakes,” said City High coach Jose Michel Fajardo. 'At the same time, we die with dignity because we know we played a good game. We dominated the game and at the end of the day if you score one more goal, you win.”

No. 6 Ames (15-3) and No. 3 City High (16-4) scored their goals in the 17th and 34th minutes, respectively. One hundred minutes of regulation and overtime gave way to penalty kicks, with Ames goalkeeper Lincoln Saxton nailing the decisive goal.

Junior midfielder Jonah Dancer and senior defender Gavin Oliver connected on their penalty picks, but misses on the first two goals put the Little Hawks in a hole. Fajardo's message after the game, Dancer said, was to take ownership of the loss but not let it be consuming.

'Just keep our heads up,” Dancer said. 'Be proud of what we did this season and what the seniors had done in their high school seasons. The people that are coming back, just pick their heads up and look forward and try to get better.”

In the first period, Ames' Divyesh Kumar dribbled to midfield and fired through three defenders to put the Little Cyclones ahead 1-0. City High junior defender John Clark netted the equalizer 17 minutes later, striking a clean shot from the top of the box on an assist from senior Daniel Echa.

'We work on that stuff a lot in practice,” Clark said. 'We work on it where you can't go inside the 18 unless it's a one-touch shot. That's what we've been working on lately because that's what teams were going to defend us like. It just worked out perfectly.”

The hurdle City High couldn't clear, Fajardo said, was working the open spaces in midfield. Ames broke its squad into groups near the goal and beyond the center line, but City High wasn't able to work the open pockets from the wing.

'You have to risk. They were not risking,” Fajardo said. 'They had one team back there and two guys up there and kicking the ball to them; they're talented guys, we know they're talented guys but we also know the way we have to do things and that didn't happen.”

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