Photo by Jeff Yoder | photo gallery

Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – West High entered the Class 3A title match red hot and riding an 18-match winning streak.

On Tuesday the Trojans ran into the only team in the state playing any better.

Top-ranked Waukee scored twice in the opening 25 minutes and held on for a 3-1 win over West High in the 3A championship match at Cownie Soccer Complex in Des Moines.

“A free kick and a penalty kick was the difference in this game,” West High coach Brad Stiles said. “My guys missed the first 10 minutes of the half and it cost us.”

Waukee (22-0) got goals from CJ Coppola, Edi Cokovic and Justin Crawmer in the title match while completing an unbeaten season with its second consecutive 3A title.

The Warriors became the first repeat champion in 3A since West High won the third of three straight titles in 2014.

“To be able to say that we are part of Iowa City West and Valley having back-to-back seasons as champions is something also it’s been 10 years Iowa City West went undefeated and that’s another accomplishment for our boys,” Waukee coach Carlos Acebey said. “They played fantastic for most of the game and I’m really happy for them.”

West High had its 18-match winning streak snapped with its first loss since a 1-0 setback to Ankeny Centennial in the season opener and closed the season 18-2.

It was the first loss for the Trojans in a state title game since falling to West Des Moines Dowling 1-0 in 2008, ending a string of six consecutive title game victories for West High.

“The first half we lost a lot of challenges that lead to a lot of their attacks and that is the one thing that we needed to change to try to start the attack,” Stiles said. “It was better in the second half but it was just too many giveaways and too many things we could have fixed and would have liked to have back.”

In its return to the title game Waukee didn’t need long to get on the board.

The Warriors took a 1-0 lead less than four minutes into the match when Cokovic fed Coppola for a sliding goal with 36:04 left in the opening half.

Waukee made it 2-0 when Cokovic slipped in a free kick from the top of the box in the 24th minute.

“We just had to be better in terms of executing in the front third of the field and be better in terms of possession,” Acebey said. “If we could find our passes and exploit them on the flanks which I thought we did in the first half quite well I knew we would have a good chance to beat them.”

It remained 2-0 until the 56th minute when Crawmer converted a penalty kick following a West High foul in the box.

“I definitely think they outworked us today,” West High junior Micah Frisbie said. “I thought Stiles had a good game plan, I thought we were ready but we just didn’t execute good enough.”

West High had life late after Frisbie scored his ninth goal of the season in the 61st minute to cut the lead to 3-1 but the Trojans would get no closer.  

“Getting that goal definitely gave us a little bit of momentum going forward but it wasn’t enough to keep us going,” Frisbie said.

Senior Gada Ambo and juniors Brody Schilling and Roberto Guzman were all selected to the Class 3A all-tournament team.

Schilling, Frisbie and Marko Migambi all return for West High next season after combining for 33 goals this year.

“This will definitely be big motivation for us,” Frisbie said. “We will lose some good players like Gada (Ambo) but Waukee will be too and we will be back for sure.”

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