Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – There are plenty of attributes that are prevalent in any good goal scorer.

Ball skills, creativity, skill and speed are often on that list.

In the case of West High’s Brody Schilling you can add patience and persistence to that list of qualities.

The junior midfielder showed off every skill in his goal-scoring arsenal on Friday.

Schilling scored the first four goals of the match as Class 3A second-ranked West High (9-1) pushed its winning streak to nine with a 6-2 win over Linn-Mar (3-10) in a Mississippi Valley Conference Valley Division match at Barker Field in Iowa City.

“It’s just having an eye for the ball and staying with it,” Schilling said. “We work on it at practice, you have to make sure you know where the ball is going, you have to follow the ball and stay with it.”

Schilling entered Friday with two goals this season but used every tool on his goal-scoring belt while doubling that total in a little more than a half of action.

A little patience paid off early as Schilling found a loose ball in front of the Linn-Mar goal and slipped a shot past the Lions’ junior keeper Skylar Bertsch to put West High up less than four minutes into the game.

“He didn’t panic and I think his first goal with his left foot showed he was in the right mindset,” West High coach Stiles said. “Sometimes he has a tendency to try to blast it and he didn’t do that on that one.”

Persistence led to the second goal for Schilling as he slammed home a rebound of a Matthew McDonnell to put West High up 2-0 in the 34th minute.

Gada Ambo played a ball into the box to McDonnell but his shot was deflected by Bertsch.

Schilling followed up the run by McDonnell and blasted the ball into the back of the net.

“I think the second one was just making a play,” Stiles said. “He just decided to smash it and see what happened and it worked out for him.”

Less than two minutes later Schilling used some savvy to tack on another goal.

A foul set up West High with a free kick from straight on just inches outside of the box.

As Schilling lined up for the free kick he saw the Linn-Mar wall wasn’t aligned with the keeper and took advantage, slipping a shot just off the ground and into the lower corner.

“The wall wasn’t set up the greatest and I just saw him not covering his side all the way so I just attacked that side,” Schilling said. “Right when I kicked it I knew it was going in.”

The third goal of the match for Schilling put West High up 3-0 at the half.

Schilling needed less than eight minutes of action in the second half to add his fourth, final and most creative score of the night.

A Linn-Mar foul set West High up with another free kick, this one from near midfield and Schillling launched a ball toward the back post the slipped under the crossbar.

“That one I was just trying to go back post because I knew we had numbers back there,” Schilling said. “It ended up going in and I was a little shocked on that one.:

West High added goals from McDonnell and Matthew Steinbronn and subbed into 11 new players leading 6-0 with 28 minutes to play.

“We have a lot of depth for goal scoring so it’s nice to know that different guys can score,” Schilling said. “Two new guys scored today so that was good to have them score.”

The win moved West High to 6-0 in MVC play and was the ninth straight since a season-opening loss to Ankeny Centennial.

“That first game we weren’t really ready and after that coach talked to us and said we had to get our stuff together,” Schilling said. “We came together as a team and every since then we’ve been playing better.”

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