Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Stow the jokes. Bullwinkle really did come to the rescue.

After West High had seemingly seized the momentum by tying the game only two minutes after City High’s go-ahead goal, sophomore Noah Bullwinkle scored the winner in the Little Hawks’ 2-1 victory Friday at a jam-packed University of Iowa soccer complex.

 “It’s really surreal; I had a pretty bad first half, and I tried to go into the second half with the mentality that I’d put my head in the game,” Bullwinkle said.

The victory completed a boy-girl sweep of the annual soccer matches between the two schools, the first sweep for City High since 2011. The City boys (4-1, 6-1) have won four of the last five regular-season matches against West (4-1, 5-3).

The first half ended in a scoreless tie. West probably had the best chance to score off a free kick by Gada Ambo, but City keeper Alex Greimann made two saves in succession to preserve the tie.

Senior John Clark scored the game’s first goal in the 48th minute. He took a through ball from Jonah Dancer fired a low shot that hit the far post and angled into the net.

“He got a ball played through, and he just had a great finish,” Bullwinkle said.

“It’s just something we go over in practice,” Clark said. “Make tight runs; make them inside; make them outside. Make it hard for the defenders to tell what you’re going to do. Don’t be predictable.”

But West responded almost immediately, when Ambo scored off a corner kick two minutes later. The box was crowded and the initial header didn’t go in but Ambo found the net.

Buoyant one minute and tied the next, City had to regroup.

“It was a huge momentum shift,” Clark said. “But we said we just can’t let them come back and score more. We had to keep pressure on them, and we had to keep making runs.”

“It’s always pretty disheartening to be ahead 1-0 and then get scored on right away, but as a team we came together, and we just knew we’d get this game,” Bullwinkle said. “We needed to focus, get it out of our head.”

Nine minutes later Bullwinkle found the ball at his feet, courtesy of a Clark pass, and popped it in past the West keeper.

“He’s always good at being in the right place at the right time,” senior Jackson Meyer said.

“Clark crossed and the goalie was sitting there, and I just put it in,” Bullwinkle said. “It wasn’t a special goal, but I knew we needed it.

“We were playing too fast in the first half. We tried to slow it down and play a possession game and focus on connecting passes and stuff.”

City coach Jose Fajardo said his team knew about West’s propensity to play long ball and prepared for it.

“But we didn’t find a way to settle the game down,” he said. “In the second half we were able to do that. We needed to stop that. If we don’t it becomes a tennis game.”

“They wanted to play balls over the top and hope to win them, but I’d say we won 85-90 percent of the headers out of it,” Meyer said.

He called his defense “fantastic,” particularly considering he starts two sophomores on the back line, and Meyer is the only one with much varsity experience. Goalkeeper Alex Greimann is also new to the varsity.

The Rivalry

(City High vs. West High Regular season results)

2018 – City High 2-1

2017 – West High 1-0

2016 – City High 1-0 (SO)

2015 – City High 2-1 (OT)

2014 – City High 1-0

2013 – West High 2-1 (2OT)

2012 – West High 4-2

2011 – City High 3-2 (SO)

2010 – West High 3-2

2009 – West High 1-0

2008 – West High 4-0

2007 – West High 1-0 (SO)

2006 – West High 1-0 (SO)

2005 – City High (SO)

2004 – City High (SO)

2003 – City High (SO)