Photo by Jeff Yoder | Substate final photo gallery

Jeff Yoder

Your Prep Sports

For 45 minutes, Iowa City West looked to be in complete control of Saturday’s substate final, leading Cedar Rapids Jefferson three goals to none.

Eighty-eight seconds later the lead was down to one.

The Trojans responded by holding the J-Hawks scoreless for the remainder of the game. Gada Ambo’s second goal gave the Trojans some breathing room and West advanced to the state tournament with a 4-2 victory.

“We were like, ‘we just have to pick it up and keep going,” because we weren’t worried,” Ambo said.

“We knew that we had them. We knew we were the better team so I just told them to keep going and we would be fine if we played our game.”

West High had a major advantage in time of possession early in the game, but couldn’t find the net until Taka Oya converted a chance in the 29th minute. The Trojans added another when Brody Schilling put a long ball inside the back post with 2:42 remaining in the half.

“That one was a cross,” he explained. “I heard a few people yell, ‘come to the back post,’ so I went there. As soon as I kicked it, I saw it kind of lean towards the goal and it went in.”

Ambo got behind the J-Hawk defense early in the second half and beat the keeper one on one to increase the lead to 3-0, which didn’t last long.

“You could tell that they were a little flat,” West High coach Brad Stiles said. “Definitely not a whole lot of communication going on out on the field so that probably added to the problem, but a fourth goal always solves a lot of problems.”

The West High senior class has made the trip to the state tournament in all four seasons.

“It was the seniors' last game on this field,” said Schilling. “I wanted to help them as much as I could to get that final game.”

Ambo’s two-goal performance gives him a dozen for the season for West High, who improved to 16-1.

“We met their intensity, we were working hard,” Ambo said of the final stretch. “Our coach told us, ‘they’re going to work hard, so we have to work hard too.’ And they did work hard, but we kept matching them and we were the better team.”

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