Washington beats Cedar Falls in OT, 2-1

CEDAR RAPIDS - He's probably only about 5-foot-6, so this likely was the closest little Jack Sunderman will get to a slam dunk. And it came on the soccer field.

Standing alone in front of the goal, Sunderman converted a perfect crossing pass from teammate Brandon Besong 2:49 into overtime to lift Cedar Rapids Washington to a 2-1 win over Cedar Falls in a Class 3A boys' substate final Saturday afternoon.

The seventh-ranked Warriors (13-5) will play a 3A quarterfinal Thursday afternoon at Cownie Park in Des Moines. It's the sixth state appearance for Washington, its second in three years.

“I was just trying to get into the right position,” said Sunderman, a freshman. “Trying to get into the right place when the ball came to me.”

That's what he did. Besong took a through ball at about the 25-yard line and made a strong run past his defender down the right sideline, letting go with a rainbow cross to the front of the net that virtually landed on Sunderman's foot.

Slam dunk. Game over.

“They told me to keep on running, keep on running, keep on going,” said Besong. “They found me, and I was just trying to make a play ... Jack buried this one.”

“We've been working on our runs for about the last two or three weeks now,” said Washington Coach J.P. Graham. “It's because we're so young. We play four freshmen, six sophomores and six or seven juniors. So we're constantly coaching every single day on making the proper run. It finally happened perfectly. A thing of beauty.”

The teams played a similar regular-season game, with 12th-ranked Cedar Falls (10-9) coming out a 2-1 winner. The Tigers scored first in this one, with a Besong penalty kick near the end of the first half tying it.

Both teams had chances in the second half that came up empty. Washington put immediate pressure on in the sudden-death 10-minute OT.

“A loss of words,” said Besong, Washington's leading goal scorer. “It just happened so fast. Jack was there to finish it. He's a freshman, but he steps up all the time. From the beginning of the season.”

Here's a short video interview with Besong: