Linn-Mar girls sneak past tough Washington defense

CEDAR RAPIDS -- Second-ranked and unbeaten Linn-Mar had a different kind of challenge Thursday at Kingston Stadium against Washington.

The Warriors used their defense-first philosophy, which was on display prominently against Kennedy a week ago, to try to stem the Lions' potent offense.

It almost worked. Linn-Mar finally got a ball into the net with just 16 minutes, 2 seconds left to play off a corner kick to win 1-0 and foil the Warriors' bid for an upset.

'We've been practicing corners because it gives us an opportunity to score more besides just combining on the field,' Olivia Garcia said. 'Someone was finally there and it was perfect into the upper corner.'

Garcia and Jensen Sevening had taken turns lofting beautiful corner kicks into the box all game, but this was the first time a Lion was able to do much with it. Maddie Scheldrup set up on the far post and headed it at an angle into the net.

'It was a perfect ball,' Scheldrup said. 'Our teammates were in there blocking the goalie so she couldn't see.'

Linn-Mar (7-0, 8-0) leads the Valley division of the MVC by two games over Prairie and Xavier.

The Lions have victories over Kennedy, Prairie and No. 4 Johnston and next week face unbeaten No. 3-ranked Iowa City West and defending 1A champ Xavier. But Washington (1-4, 2-5) gave the Lions fits even without its starting goalie, who was out after receiving a red card in the team's last game.

The Warrior back line of Annee Cooper, Maggie Clair, Lydia Kratovil and Kelly King protected the two reserve goalies like guard dogs. But the Lions broke through after a rare error by the back line when a throw-in was inadvertently headed out over the back line to give the Lions a corner.

'They are an aggressive team,' Scheldrup said. 'We finally got a goal; it took awhile.'

'It was definitely a little frustrating because we were playing our game, passing and combining and they were all compact in there, so we had to find a different way (to score) and a corner is one of the them,' Garcia said.

The Lions have given up only two goals (both to Kennedy) in eight games while scoring 25. Washington's primary offense came from runs by Katie Kigin, but she wasn't able to break through for a score.