Your Prep Sports

SOLON – After waiting 18 matches for a goal what’s another day or two?

That was the situation for Alex Locke on Thursday and the wait turned out to be well worth it for the Solon freshman.

Locke scored her first career goal on a free kick to lift Solon (7-12) to a 1-0 win over Mediapolis (6-8) on Thursday in the completion of a Class 1A, Regional quarterfinal delayed twice in two days by thunderstorms.

“It was pretty awesome, I was jumping up and down and screaming,” Locke said. “I had said that I wanted to score a goal this season. I’m a defender so it’s pretty exciting to get a goal in that situation.”

It took three days and the late goal from Locke for Solon to advanc to the Region 8 semifinals where it will get a rematch with Regina (7-10) at 5 p.m. on Friday at Liberty High School in North Liberty.

Solon defeated Regina 2-1 in the regular season finale for both teams on May 21.

The quarterfinal was originally scheduled for Tuesday but widespread thunderstorms across eastern Iowa forced it to be pushed back a day.

The teams played to a scoreless tie for better than 52 minutes on Wednesday before another round of storms forced the match to be delayed again.

When play resumed on Thursday Locke and the Spartans were ready.

“Obviously it was not ideal with the weather, we didn’t exactly have mother nature in our favor but kudos to our girls they stayed pumped and anytime I told them to start warming up and getting ready to go they were there mentally focused,” Solon coach Amanda Paulson said. “. They came out prepared each and every day so all the credit goes to them.”

Play restarted on Thursday with 27:31 left in the match and Locked quickly gave the Spartans the lead.

Locke launched a shot toward goal on a free kick from 40 yards out and it bounced free from Mediapolis keeper Leelu Daigle.

“I figured I just would just kick it up and hope that someone would head it in, just run on to it,” Locke said. “I guess the goalkeeper fumbled it and it went in. That was awesome.”
That was all the scoring Solon would need.

The Spartans posted their sixth shutout in seven wins this season to secure the victory.

“Our defense stayed focused throughout the game,” Paulson said. “Fortunately they didn’t have too many dangerous opportunities to score but in soccer all it takes is one opportunity to get in behind the back line so they did a great job of communicating with the midfield and making sure people stayed marked up and always being ready to make a play.”

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