Iowa City Regina beats Albia, 3-0

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DES MOINES - Yes, small-town Iowa radio broadcasts soccer.

A station from Albia aired Thursday afternoon's Class 1A boys' state tournament quarterfinal between their Blue Demons and Iowa City Regina. Two of their sponsors were a funeral home and butcher shop.

Insert obvious punch line here.

It was apparent from opening kickoff that Regina was going to win this game. The defending champion, top-seeded and top-ranked Regals were simply a better team and proved it in a 3-0 victory.

“I thought we played well,” said Regina's Daniel Larew. “We came out ready to dominate, and that's what we did.”

Regina (17-4-1) had massive advantages in ball possession and chances. If it wasn't for the heroics of Albia goalkeeper Jordan Crall, this one could easily have been ugly, ugly, ugly on the scoreboard.

Or at least much uglier than it was.

Junior striker Johnny Rummelhart scored with two minutes left in the first half, taking a through ball in the box from Larew and beating Crall. Junior midfielder Larew scored twice in the second to move Regina comfortably on to a noon semifinal today against Clear Lake (11-5) at Cownie Park.

Clear Lake, a No. 5 seed, smacked Gilbert by an identical 3-0 count.

“We try to look at every game like it could be our last,” said Rummelhart, who has a team-best 25 goals.

“It's the state tournament. We're just happy to get any win,” Larew said. “I thought we could have played better, especially that first half. We missed some chances. But to win and move on to the next round, that doesn't really matter.”

Here's first-half video of Larew taking a free kick just outside the box: