Linn-Mar stunned in final minute of girls’ soccer quarterfinal

DES MOINES — The Linn-Mar girls' soccer team got up off the ground after four consecutive losses this season and battled its way to the state tournament. But once a team gets to state, nothing is guaranteed.

The seventh-ranked Lions were eliminated in a 3A quarterfinal by West Des Moines Valley, 2-1, on a header off a corner kick with 32 seconds left in regulation. Valley plays top-ranked Dowling Friday in the semifinals, and the Lions' season ended with a 15-5 record.

'No matter how crazy it is it's always fun,' senior Jensen Sevening said of her team's season. 'After the four losses everyone sort of gave up on us like, 'Oh Linn-Mar isn't any good anymore.' We fought back. We worked on things we needed to change. We got back into it. We just unfortunately had a bad end to the year.'

'They played great,' Lions' Coach Steve Dickinson said. 'They are heartbroken. The team did fantastic this year. It'll take us a while, but we'll get over it and come back next year and try it again.'

The winning goal had a touch of the bizarre.

'I headed it in and then they hit it in with their hand, so we would have gotten a PK anyway,' Valley's Sami Pick said. 'But I'll take it. We practice corners, and I looked at Anja (Schepp) and made eye contact and we knew this one was going to go in.'

'Anytime the ball gets down in that area there's a chance of something happening, and unfortunately for us it went in,' Dickinson said.

Valley scored in the seventh minute on a long boot by Grace Breiholz. The Lions evened it on a nearly identical shot by Jenna Ajram. It was her first goal of the season.

'I just saw the opportunity and I took it,' she said. 'It was one of those goals that goes over the keeper. It's hard to get to those.'

The whole second half was a struggle for both attacks.

'Their defense is really quick, and it was really congested in the middle,' Ajram said. 'We're used to playing up the middle, and we had to find a different plan for that.'

'Both teams are very strong in the defense and very determined to hold on to the ball,' Dickinson said. 'The wet conditions made it tougher.'

Valley and Linn-Mar played late in the regular season with the Lions winning 2-1.

'It was kind of hard for us because we already played them earlier in the season,' Sevening said. 'Both teams were prepared and they knew how to attack us. I feel like we didn't stay in our game. We just tried to kick and run. We needed to work on keeping it on the ground.'