Top-ranked Iowa City High shows off depth in state quarterfinal victory

DES MOINES – Give anyone on this Iowa City High team an inch of space and you could get burned.

Des Moines Roosevelt learned that in Thursday's Class 3A boys' state soccer quarterfinals at Cownie Soccer Park as the top-ranked Little Hawks got goals from three different players in a 3-0 win.

The depth makes for a difficult scout, to be sure.

'What we have that is different from other teams, maybe, is we don't have any superstars,' City High coach Jose Michel Fajardo said. 'When you have a team like that, that doesn't rely on one player to win a game, you have a lot of success at the end of the year and that's what we have here.'

City High (19-0) advances to Friday's semifinals, where it will meet No. 4 seed Ames (16-3).

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The Little Cyclones have to deal with a roster that has a myriad of attacking options. Substitute Cameron Chavez recorded the winner against Roosevelt, dipping a shot from outside the box over the keeper.

'I get in, not expecting to score a goal, just expecting to help my team out,' said Chavez, who had three goals and an assist this season entering the tournament. 'I get the ball with a lot of time and I just decided to kick it.'

Bolstered by a defense that has given up only five goals this year, finding the net one time is generally good enough for a Little Hawk win. Two goals and City fans are more than comfortable.

So you can imagine what underdog Des Moines Roosevelt (13-8) was feeling when, in the 39th minute, a deflected ball bounced to midfielder Collin O'Meara, who half-volleyed it into the upper corner for a 2-0 halftime advantage.

'I thought, might as well have a crack,' O'Meara said. 'I don't know if the keeper was really expecting it.'

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The RoughRiders found it challenging to gain elongated possession and through balls were generally met by the boot of a City defender.

Hunter teDuits wrapped it up with his third goal of the year in the 65th minute, blasting home a free-kick rebound.

'We knew that they were not going to be a team that was going to be sitting in the back, because what we have seen the whole season they were going to try to put pressure on us,' Fajardo said. 'But with this weather and the depth that we have, it's very difficult to play us that way.'

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