Defending 3A Champion West High Returns to State With 2-1 Win Over CR Kennedy
Susan Harman
Your Prep Sports
IOWA CITY – Brody Schilling scored a second-half goal on a free kick that would have made a geometry teacher proud.
The shot around the wall caromed off the left post and angled into the net in the 53rd minute. It proved to be the winner in a 2-1 substate final victory over Cedar Rapids Kennedy Saturday at Barker Field.
The fifth-ranked Trojans (17-3) qualified for the state tournament for the 19th time and have a chance to defend the state title they somewhat surprisingly won a year ago.
West High is the fifth seed and will play fourth-seeded Ankeny Centennial (15-4) in a quarterfinal on Thursday at 5:10 p.m. at the Cownie Soccer Park in Des Moines.
Kennedy closed out the season with an 11-6 record with two of those losses coming to West.
“Another trip to Des Moines is a good thing,” a relieved West coach Brad Stiles said. “I think my dad said it best that sometimes you have to be more lucky than good, and I think today was one of those days. We won a hard-fought game, that’s for sure.”
The two teams played on April 17, with West winning 3-1. While the result was the same the games were different and not just because the temperatures varied 50 degrees.
The Trojans scored first in the sultry 90-degree heat on a goal from the left side by senior Ahmed Abdalla in the seventh minute.
“I just made a run and Brody crossed the ball with some help from Gada (Ambo), and I just ended up in the right place, right time,” Abdalla said.
“It was important to get the first goal,” Schilling said. “It gave us a boost; it got us going.”
West High seemed in control but wasn’t putting away the chances it was creating, leaving the door ajar for the Cougars.
A near goal by Kennedy with about 12 minutes left seemed to change the momentum. The Cougars had a free kick that was headed in front of the goal, but it hit the left post, and while West was able to survive the flurry the Cougars kept up the pressure.
Quick sophomore forward Kisibo Kasha evened the game with a goal in the 31st minute.
Kennedy had a corner that was headed but ended up on the ground, and Kasha was able to clean up the mess in front of the goal and boot it home.
Going into halftime it was Kennedy that had the momentum and West was looking vulnerable.
“We watched; we stood; they won every ball for about 12 or 15 minutes,” Stiles said. “Every single one of them. We should have been down by a goal at the end of that first half.”
West adjusted.
“We didn’t have any success going forward with our forwards so we added an extra midfielder to try and change the look and keep possession some,” Stiles said.
Schilling’s goal reasserted control. It came after a penalty was whistled a split second before he
“I scored it and then we heard the whistle,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘Oh man, what do I have to do now?’ Stiles looked at me and said, ‘I have faith in you; just try and bury it.’
“All I was thinking about was top spin. That’s what I’ve been working on lately. That’s all I had to do and I hit it just right.”
While Stiles made strategic adjustments in the second half, players made attitude adjustments.
“Coach Stiles looked at us and said we have to win the ball,” Schilling said. “At the end of the (half) we were getting beat at the ball, and Stiles looked at us and said ‘We have to go out there; this is our last game of the season on Barker and we have to go do it.’
“We all looked at each other like, ‘Yes we have to,’ so we went out and did it.”
The state berth is secure, but Stiles wasn’t fooled. His team will have to be better next week or it will be a short stay.
“This group is going to have to open a lot of doors and mind their manners for the next eight days because we burned a lot of karma today (using) a lot of mentally poor judgment,” he said.