By Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Does scoring a goal ever stop being exciting? In most instances the question doesn’t even need to be asked.

In the case of Solon senior Josie Durr it’s a something worth asking.

“No, it never gets old,” Durr said with a laugh when asked that very question. “It’s exciting every time. It’s always fun to score.”

Watching Durr during her prep career you can see how the question could come up.

Durr has scored enough goals in her career (155 and counting) to make the normally exhilarating experience almost mundane.

There is nothing ordinary about the goal scoring numbers Durr is putting up in the final season of her unprecedented prep career.

Through 11 matches Durr has scored 47 goals for the 8-3 Spartans this season, one more than her state-leading total of a year ago.

That’s better four goals per game and more goals than the team total for all but four teams in the state.

“Josie is at a different level this year,” Solon coach John Tucker said. “I think she’s playing really good this year and all the girls are stepping up when they see her play hard and she is really raising the level of our team.”

Durr has a goal in all but one match this season and has scored three or more goals eight times.

She had a school-record nine goals in a 9-0 win over South Tama and broke the school record for career goals previously held by Alison McKinnie with 151.

The next goal by Durr will break McKinnie’s single season goal record of 47.

“My sister was on the team with her so I would come to the games and see her and she scored goals all the time and I thought that was cool,” Durr said of McKinnie. “I hoped I could do that someday.”

What Durr has done in her prep career has been nothing short of amazing.

She has averaged better than 2.3 goals per match during her career and better than three goals per outing the past two seasons.

This year she has been at her best.

Her 47 goals are 20 more than the next highest total in the state and she still has six regular season matches to play.

“My footwork is something that I spent a lot of time working on and just being able to beat that last line of defense,” Durr said. “This year I am able to place it instead of shooting it I’m able to place it and that really helps.”

Thanks to 47 goals and eight assists from Durr, Solon has scored a state-best 64 goals this season.

The objective for Durr is to help Solon return to the state tournament for the first time since her freshman season in 2014.

If scoring more goals is what it takes to get to state that is what Durr will try to do.

 “I just wanted to help make the team better and help us make a state tournament run,” Durr said. “I never really thought about it how many goals I would score. That’s still what I want to try to do is get to state.”

Back on Track: City High (5-4) got a much needed win on Thursday, snapping a 3-match losing skid with 3-1 win over Cedar Rapids Prairie.

The Little Hawks went three straight matches without scoring a goal before the win over Prairie.

Still Perfect: The list of unbeaten teams in the state is quickly dwindling. Only four teams in the state remain undefeated and West High (9-0) is one of those teams.

West High is the lone unbeaten team in Class 3A and joins ADM, Newton and Denver as the lone undefeated teams in Iowa.