Iowa City West gets by Johnston in Class 3A girls’ soccer semifinals

DES MOINES - Iowa City West's fast start nullified Johnston's furious comeback effort, as the Women of Troy won its Class 3A girls' state soccer semifinal, 2-1, Friday at Cownie Soccer Complex.

The second-ranked Women of Troy (19-2) will play top-ranked West Des Moines Dowling (17-2) for the title at 4 p.m. Saturday. West's only girls' soccer championship came in 2004.

'When you get to the state tournament you have to play three games in three days and the game we played yesterday against Waukee exhausted us,” West Coach Dave Rosenthal said. 'When you get that kind of exhaustion you say, ‘OK how much energy do we have?' If we have enough energy in the tank that we can take them on and get something early, maybe that might set them back emotionally.

'Honestly I think that helped, but give credit to Johnston for fighting back.”

West started well, possessing the ball so completely in the first half that its defense wasn't even stressed.

'We knew they were going to be a really strong team and we just needed to combine in the midfield to get it forward more,” midfielder Anna Zimmerman said.

'We really worked on keeping possession and switching the field because there's lots of open space because of (the way Johnston commits its defense),” forward Leah Rhodes said.

Regan Steigleder added another gorgeous goal to her tournament resume in the eighth minute. She danced around a couple defenders and fired it into the upper left corner from about 22 yards.

Rhodes added a second goal in the 52nd minute.

'Marissa (Frisbie) had the ball and she just got a little touch on it for me, and I just ran in, took a touch by the defender and shot it,” Rhodes said.

The Dragons got back in the game in the 61st minute when Payton Thompson scored off a corner kick.

'It was a good finish and we just weren't where we needed to be,” defender Tia Saunders said.

That goal changed the nature of the game.

'They seemed to get a lot more momentum and we kind of sat on our heels a bit, and we paid for it,” Rhodes said.

The Dragons pressured West the final 19 minutes, but the defense, shaky at times, held. Saunders was tireless in ferreting out incoming attackers and stripping them of the ball.

'We had been kind of falling apart and we knew we had to pick it up,” Saunders said. 'We really wanted to be in the final game.”

'Tia's a pretty special player in the back,” Rosenthal said. 'She's got some incredible pace. She's the kind of player who can challenge the ball, challenge the player.

'If she gets beat she can recover and get a second chance.”