Iowa City West wins 15th straight trip to state

IOWA CITY - Iowa City West earned its 16th trip to the boys' state soccer tournament and 15th in a row, tying the state record, with a 4-2 victory over Cedar Rapids Prairie Saturday afternoon.

West scored all four goals in the final nine minutes of each half, a testimony to the number of players the Trojans can throw out on the field to win a battle of attrition.

West (18-1) plays West Des Moines Valley (17-4) in the first round of the state tournament at 5:05 p.m. next Thursday at Cownie Soccer Complex in Des Moines.

Prairie finished its season 8-8.

'It's always a relief to be going back to state,” West senior Jason Guymon said. 'We knew this was the seniors' last home game and we wanted it to count.”

Antonio Sanchez opened the scoring in the 31st minute after Ryan Odeen headed a booming goal kick toward the Prairie goal. Sanchez took control and knocked it home.

But Prairie senior Nermin Ibrahimovic evened it three minutes later on a blast from just outside the box on the right. West countered two minutes later when Garrett Grimsman nudged a pass to the right side, and Sanchez blasted it though the goalkeeper's grasp for a 2-1 lead.

West wasn't done and got a third goal with just 45 seconds left in the half on a pass from Sanchez to Guymon, who headed it in.

'He was on the sideline and I was running in the box,” Guymon said. 'He dropped it really nice. It kind of hit off my head really weird, but I was able to place it well enough that it went in the net.”

'The goal right before halftime killed us momentum-wise,” Prairie Coach Curt Lewis said. 'I think everybody was in shock when we scored the goal to tie it, and then we kind of had a letdown and they got a second one and then the third one put a lot of pressure on us.”

The Trojans were comfortable up 3-1 at half, but that didn't last long. After a hand ball, Ibrahimovic set up to take a free kick just outside the top of the box. West set up a wall, but at the last second a Hawk player took up residence on the left side of wall and nudged it in like an accordion. Ibrahimovic smashed a low shot around that side and bent it into the net.

Moving Ibrahimovic from defense to forward was one of the Hawks' adjustments for this game.

'Those were two fantastic shots,” Lewis said.

The once-comfortable lead was down to 3-2 with 31:50 left in the game.

'We told them if we could make it 3-2 in the first 10 minutes we'd make West have to play,” Lewis said. 'Make them play the full 80 minutes.”

'I'm sure there was a little bit of concern; it's not as secure to only be up one,” Guymon said. 'But we did it. We made sure they didn't get another one.”

Four yellow cards were issued in the next few minutes as play intensified. Finally with 8:25 left, West's Dwight Bode and Odeen were in a scrum trying to control the ball in front of the Hawks' net. Odeen managed to nudge it out to the left, and Guymon was left one-on-one against the keeper and booted it into the upper right corner.

West won the regular-season game, 1-0, at Prairie. Guymon said part of the difference in the two games was the field itself. Prairie's is artificial turf and is much narrower than West's wide-open spaces. That gave the Trojan offense plenty of room for possession and attacks.

'I'm definitely proud of my back line,” West Coach Brad Stiles said. 'We watched a lot of film from earlier in the year and we made some big mistakes in that (prior) game to keep them in the attacking half. I think our back line only gave it away once or twice today. That was a huge difference.”

'We knew coming down here it was going to take a very special set of events for us to pull the upset,” Lewis said. 'We fought to the end.”