Kady Pfeifer comes off bench to score CPU’s golden goal in girls’ state soccer quarterfinals

DES MOINES - Center Point-Urbana's Kady Pfeifer is a quiet person and player.

'She's been that silent player on the team - that 12th man,” Center Point-Urbana girls' soccer coach Todd Mitchell said.

Thursday at Crownie Soccer Park, Pfeifer had the loudest goal of CPU's season.

With 3:14 left in overtime, the ball found itself at the foot of Pfeifer in the middle of the box and Pfeifer rifled it into the back of Nevada's net, giving the Stormin' Pointers a 1-0 win in a Class 1A girls' state soccer quarterfinal.

'I just saw the ball come in and I knew I could make it,” Pfeifer said. 'I just hammered it away.”

Pfeifer, a junior, only scored three goals all season while coming off the bench.

Her fourth helped the No. 3-ranked Stormin' Pointers (17-2) advance to the Class 1A semifinals, where they'll face No. 8 North Polk (16-4) at 11:15 a.m. Friday.

'I've been hungry for (another goal) for so long,” Pfeifer said. 'It was amazing to finally score one again.”

Her teammates mobbed her in celebration when they saw it go in.

'I'm really proud of Kady, she was there when she needed to be,” Mitchell said. 'When she comes in, she contributes, and she knocks it out of the park and we always rely on her to do that.”

Center Point-Urbana has allowed only two goals all season, so Mitchell was confident in his team's defense. But seventh-ranked Nevada (14-5) was packing its back line.

'It was a nail-biter,” Mitchell said. 'We stick true to what we do best, and that's defend. But I'm not going to lie, there have been times this year where we've struggled scoring. They took advantage of that and really bunkered in and sometimes they had five players back there. That makes it frustrating for our attackers.”

In the second half, CPU tried to forced the issue. When overtime started, Mitchell had a simple message for his team.

'What we told them after regulation is, ‘Play small, go after small passes and go back to what you do well and it's going to happen,'” Mitchell said.

The Stormin' Pointers took the message to heart and methodically moved the ball. It found Pfeifer in the middle of the box.

'(Scoring that goal) was amazing,” Pfeifer said. 'I'm so glad my team was there to back me up, too. I just felt supported though that whole game from my team.”

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