Iowa City West rallies emphatically, Prairie shut out in 3A boys’ state soccer quarterfinals

DES MOINES — Kolby Goldbolt’s patience was tested, but he didn’t panic.

The Iowa City West forward was kicking himself after not scoring in the Trojans’ two substate soccer tournament wins and not finishing early chances in their Class 3A state quarterfinal game Tuesday against Sioux City West.

So when the Wolverines took a 1-0 lead in the 30th minute on a Jamie Perez header, Godbolt and the rest of the third-ranked Trojans could have hung their heads.

Instead, Godbolt responded with one of the top performances of the day, scoring four goals in West’s 5-1 win. The Trojans (19-1) advance to face No. 4 West Des Moines Valley (17-4) in Thursday’s semifinals.

“(I thought) ’if we lose now, it’s over,’” Godbolt said. “I just gave it my full effort and luckily the outcome was four goals.”

The Wolverines must have thought they were about to head into halftime with a 1-0 lead over the tournament’s top seed (No. 1-ranked Waukee was upset in the substate finals).

Godbolt wasn’t content with that. He slipped behind the back line and scored the equalizer with just 22 seconds remaining in the half.

“I knew it was a matter of time,” Godbolt said. “We had four or five chances that we should have put away before they scored the first goal. I wasn’t worried, honestly.”

The special part of his special performance came in the second half. Godbolt took down a lobbed ball from Andy Lu in the 56th minute and lifted it over the keeper to put West up 2-1. Then, in the 66th minute, he produced a one-man counterattack, splitting three defenders and blasting a shot from distance into the upper far corner.

“A special finisher is the word I use,” West Coach Brad Stiles said.

Godbolt added a fourth less than two minutes later, then Corentin Charles got in on the fun for West’s fifth.

“The halftime speech was all about positivity,” Stiles said. “The goals are coming. It’s not like we aren’t creating things. Their goalkeeper did really well at the beginning of the game.”

The goal never came for Cedar Rapids Prairie.

In its fourth boys’ state soccer tournament appearance, a win still eluded the Hawks.

Bryce Rubel’s first-half goal held up for Pleasant Valley as the fifth-ranked Spartans (16-2) advanced in their state tournament debut with a 1-0 win over the No. 2-ranked Hawks (15-3).

“We had the better of the play for the majority of the game,” Prairie Coach Curt Lewis said. “We controlled it, moved the ball, did all the things that we wanted to do down here. Except score a goal. And we make a mistake and give them a goal, so that’s the frustrating part of it.”

This Prairie team was young and not viewed as a state contender at the beginning of the season. The Hawks expect to have another shot at a win here soon.

“It hurts now, but when they have a chance to reflect on everything that we accomplished after not getting here in 2019, I think it’s something that we expect to be here every year,” Lewis said.