Jahsiah Galvan’s PK golden goal sends West Liberty to boys’ state soccer semifinals for third-straight season

DES MOINES — Jahsiah Galvan walked to the penalty spot 28 seconds into the second overtime of Wednesday’s Class 1A boys’ state soccer quarterfinal game and thought about practice.

“Just trying to calm myself down as much as possible,” Galvan said. “It’s just a PK. We do it every day at practice. It’s really just muscle memory. Make sure it’s low, don’t kick it over.

“I knew it was going to go in.”

He was right. Galvan’s 30th goal of the season was his biggest yet, a golden goal from the spot that sent No. 4-seed West Liberty (14-3) to the state semifinals for the third-straight season with a 3-2 win over No. 5-seed Nevada (15-7).

The Comets will face top-seeded Western Christian (16-1) here at noon Friday, a rematch of a semifinal the Wolfpack won last season. Western beat defending state champion Burlington Notre Dame in a quarterfinal Wednesday, 1-0.

West Liberty had to work to get back to the final four. Galvan scored the opener by chipping the keeper in the 19th minute. The Cubs answered via a set piece, Carson Rhodes tapping in the equalizer with 6:20 left before halftime.

Joshua Zeman restored West Liberty’s lead on a 49th-minute breakaway, but once again Nevada came back with a late response. Drew Robinson drew a penalty and converted to tie it at 2-2 with just 5:03 to go.

“We’re kind of all on our toes (going into overtime),” Galvan said. “We’re all kind of gassed at the end, all our legs a little bit dead. But it’s just trying to finish, have high effort and try to close out the game.”

Galvan, a senior signed to play football at Northern Iowa, scored in last year’s game against Western to give West Liberty an early lead, but the Wolfpack rallied for a 2-1 win.

West Liberty Coach Walton Ponce, in his third season as head coach, has a team motivated to take the next step this week.

“We’ve got big goals for this tournament,” Ponce said. “We want to get past that hump. Today was just step one. They’re hungry. They want it bad.”

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