Once the underdog, Kennedy now enters regional final as state’s lone unbeaten

Cautionary tales are not usually heeded by 16- and 17-year-olds who generally think they're impervious to the slings and arrows of life. But the Kennedy girls' soccer team had first-hand experience and played a role in a tale that will be told to them before Monday's regional final.

Two years ago en route to their own state championship Kennedy upset then top-ranked and unbeaten Linn-Mar. This season it is the Cougars who are top-ranked and unbeaten (18-0) as they head into the regional final against No. 15 Iowa City High (12-5).

'We have talked about a couple years ago,” Kennedy Coach Scott Myers said. '18-0 is pretty good and 19-0 is better. 18-1 doesn't really feel as good. Our seniors went through that Linn-Mar game, they're friends with players on that Linn-Mar team, and they know what it's like. They don't want to have that feeling of heartbreak.”

The Cougars won the regular-season match 1-0 back on April 12, but both teams have evolved since then.

'I think both teams have gotten better,” Myers said. 'Their freshman goalkeeper (Naomi Meurice) has gotten better. It seems that they are healthier now. And when we played them the first time we hadn't played a single game or scrimmage.

'I know they'll be prepared for us. They are going to come in expecting to win.”

City Coach Michael Prunty finally has attackers Maddie and Sydney DePrenger back from injuries and several players who were gone off and on for track.

'We've never had both (DePrengers) available all season,” Prunty said. 'We're as close to 100 percent as we have been all season.

'What we've focused on is that game we played them. For a 1-0 loss we came out of that game pretty happy with our performance as far as creating chances and denying them chances.”

In other 3A games defending champion and fifth-ranked Iowa City West (15-3) was given the difficult assignment of traveling to No. 6 Bettendorf (16-2).

'We know they're a very strong team athletically,” West Coach Dave Rosenthal said. 'I do know they've lost one of their better players, Bella Blackman, an Iowa recruit. She apparently broke her arm earlier in the season.

'But they still have some incredible players starting with (all-stater) Paige Wagner (18 goals, 16 assists), who is scoring a lot of goals for them. So I expect this to be a very competitive match.”

Wagner scored the winning goal on a free kick in the 76th minute in Bettendorf's 1-0 semifinal victory over Muscatine.