Iowa City West boys’ soccer bounces back in a big way against City High

IOWA CITY — Almost five minutes after kickoff Friday afternoon, rivalry week for Iowa City West’s boys’ soccer team looked like it might end up being a week to quickly move past as it faced a 1-0 deficit.

Almost 12 minutes later, West forward Michael Nelson blasted a 30-yard free kick under the crossbar and into the net and the 11th-ranked Trojans seemingly exhaled. Three straight second-half goals followed and their rivalry week had a triumphant finish with a 4-2 victory over 10th-ranked Iowa City High on the City High turf.

“One goal is all that matters,” Nelson said. “We got that one goal and the motivation started coming in and we just played how we should have.”

The Little Hawks outshot the Trojans 11-3 in the first half, but it was much more even in the second. As City (3-2) pushed numbers forward, West (5-2) countered opportunistically.

Ten minutes into the second half, Miguel Cohen Suarez won a ball on the right wing at full speed, Amre Ibrahim gave him a perfect touch into the box and he dribbled around the goalkeeper for an open shot to put the Trojans up 2-1. A few minutes later, Nelson hit Daniel Fuentes on the break and the freshman confidently struck a shot from deep into the lower corner. Nelson added his own breakaway goal with 3:07 left, chipping the keeper after a ball from sophomore center back Adarsh Khullar.

“With this young of a team, we have tried to stick with one formation just to kind of keep everybody on the same page,” West coach Brad Stiles said. “At halftime, we just scrapped that and went with something else completely different.

“Obviously it worked out.”

Jacob Eisenberg scored City’s opener on an Emmit Hansen cross and Alfredo Ortiz finished a similar play in the 78th minute. In between, though, West absorbed the Little Hawks’ pressure. Anyone keeping track of blocked shots would have been busy.

“It’s something we talked about a lot at practice, marking the runners,” Khullar said. “City High is really good at running across, mixing around their players. Communication is the No. 1 thing.”

Realistically, had it ended up an 0-2 week on the road in mid-April — following Tuesday’s loss in penalties to top-ranked Iowa City Liberty — West would have had nothing to be discouraged about.

Except, it’s rivalry week.

“We just knew we couldn’t lose this game,” Khullar said.

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