West girls dominate City High

IOWA CITY - Iowa City West girls' soccer coach Dave Rosenthal was worried about a couple things coming into last night's match against City High.

One was that the two teams went double overtime a year ago, and the other was the dramatic final-second loss suffered by the top-ranked West boys in the game that preceded the girls at the University of Iowa field.

Not to worry.

Third-ranked West scored one goal in the first half and two, both on penalty kicks, in the second to beat the Little Hawks, 3-0.

'Last year was double overtime,” Rosenthal said. 'They came in with a new coach, a new attitude, a lot of heart and a lot of passion for the game. Tonight they were a little passive and I wonder if some of it has to do with the (postseason) pairings came out and we meet City in the first round. It kind of changes the feel for this game.”

So did the ending of the boys' game.

'I said we have to come out like this is a regular old game,” he said. 'We can't think about what just happened out there.”

West was in control from the outset, both in terms of possession and shots. The Women of Troy scored the first goal in the 15th minute on a pass from Emma Cooper to Tia Saunders.

'Alli (Peterson) played a great ball in after taking on a bunch of defenders,” Cooper said. 'That allowed me to run in and Tia made a good run into the box and I hit it back to her. 'It felt like we outworked them, but they did such a great job; they really hung in there the best they could.”

The next goal came after Regan Steigleder was fouled in the box and Anna Hausler scored on the penalty kick.

'That kind of hurt,” Steigleder said. 'Her leg was there and I just kind of flew.”

The second score six minutes into the second half was still key even though City mounted few attacks.

'It made us calm down and feel comfortable,” Steigleder said.

Peterson scored the final goal on a PK with 6:55 left.

West (10-1, 8-1) remains in the driver's seat for the divisional crown. City is 5-5, 4-4.