Skilled, fast Linn-Mar girls win top-five clash

CEDAR RAPIDS — Linn-Mar got one more ball in the net than did Cedar Rapids Kennedy in a match of the No. 2 and No. 4 teams in Class 3A, beating the Cougars, 3-2, Thursday at Kennedy.

The two teams both returned multiple players with postseason honors. They are experienced, skilled and fast, and that meant the soccer went end-to-end all night long.

'We love playing Linn-Mar; it's a crosstown rival,' Kennedy's Jordan Holmes said. 'It's our cancer game. We're out here raising money for cancer. We're all friends off the field but it could easily have been a 6-5 game.'

They might still be playing except that all-state goalkeeper Rylie Frese stopped a Kennedy penalty kick by all-stater Emily Feltes with 1:27 left to preserve the Lions' lead.

'I saw the ball coming and it was a slower one, so I didn't have to read it as quickly,' Frese said. 'I looked at how she winds up with the ball and I could tell.'

Kennedy (3-1) got on top with a goal in the sixth minute by Feltes on a through ball from Annie Feltes. The Cougars held that lead until just 5 minutes remained in the half, when Kayla Kvach took a free kick and booted it home.

'(That goal) reset everybody's mood at halftime,' Linn-Mar coach Steve Dickinson said. 'It was a hard-fought game. Both had chances.'

Linn-Mar (2-0) took a 2-1 lead with 33:43 left in the second half on a nice combination from Jensen Sevening to Claire Larson to Garcia.

'I was there for the garbage ball, and I got it,' Garcia said.But Kennedy's wonderfully active sophomore mid Megan Petsche evened the score four minutes later with a sharply angled shot from the right.

Momentum meant nothing though, and Larson struck back just a minute and a half later on a free kick from Sevening.

'We got the foul and Jensen had a great cross. I was just there at the back,' Larson said.

A lot more will be heard from both of these teams.

'We came out and did what we wanted to do,' Holmes said. 'We played as a team. We had so many shot opportunities that we didn't finish.'