Feisty Regina routs West Central Valley

DES MOINES — West Central Valley can blame West Liberty's boys' soccer team for the fury it met in the first half of its quarterfinal game against Regina on Thursday.

The Comets' three-goal rally to send the substate final into overtime was front and center on the Regals' minds, and they built an early lead that was insurmountable in a 4-0 victory at Cownie Soccer Park.

'We wanted to come out in the first five minutes intense,' Emilio Tovar said. 'We didn't want a repeat of last weekend when we gave up a three-goal lead. We focused on keeping the intensity up after we got ahead and putting the game away.'

Jacob Adam said the whole trip to Des Moines was spent concentrating on coming out with a vengeance.

'Because we weren't sure what this team had to offer,' he said. 'So we had to bring our best and hopefully get up.'

No. 2-ranked Regina (14-3) plays No. 4 Mid-Prairie (16-2) at 12:05 p.m. today in the semifinals. Regina and Mid-Prairie were scheduled to meet on April 14, but the game was not played.

The Regals have never lost a first-round game at the boys' state soccer tournament. West Central Valley bowed out at 14-6. This was the third trip to state for the Wildcats and the first since 2000.

The Regals came out like their crowns were on fire, dominating possession and peppering the Wildcat defense with shots. The first two goals came off free kicks by Jacob Adam. Tovar picked up the deflection in the box and booted it home for the first goal in the ninth minute.

'We normally get quite a few of them (free kicks) each game, so we have a good amount of practice with them,' Adam said. 'I just try to put it where they are going to be. We capitalized on two of them.'

Thirteen minutes later, Adam's free kick on the right side of the box was fielded by Tovar and sent home for a 2-0 lead.

'I just saw it and took it,' Tovar said of the first. 'The second one was a bit of luck.'

Those two combined for a beautiful run in the 36th minute for the third goal. Adam passed to Tovar, who returned the ball, and Adam kicked it in.

'I was going to go for the shot but saw Jake open at midfield and passed it off,' Tovar said.

Regina got a final goal on a penalty kick by Nic Ziniel after a handball in the box in the 54th minute.

'I thought we played pretty well,' Regina Coach Rick Larew said. 'We moved the ball around and got lots of people involved, which I love to see. This is a tough, physical team and we had to maintain our composure, which I thought we did. We were able to get a lot of guys minutes.'