Douglas Miles

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The final game was a microcosm of the last 14 months for the City High girls soccer team.

Perseverance through unique circumstances.

Respond to adversity with focus and determination. Learn and adjust on the fly. Remain unified.

In the end, a hearty bunch of Little Hawks simply ran out of time in an otherwise successful season.

“Every team ends their season with a loss except for one,” first-year City High coach Corbin Scholz said after the 15th-ranked Little Hawks were trimmed by Cedar Rapids Kennedy, 3-2, in a Class 3A regional semifinal Wednesday night at the City High soccer field. “Ours happened to be today, but that doesn’t take away that we finished the regular season 9-4, the best record that City High has had in decades. We had a really great season. I am really proud of them. We have a really young team, so that is something to look forward to in the future, as well. We just keep working off the field, keep in contact, stay strong on and off the field and we are going to be fine.”

The loss of the 2020 season due to the onset of the coronavirus not only wiped out an entire season, it limited the number of matches the Little Hawks were able to schedule in 2021.

When those unprecedented challenges are combined with the introduction of a new coach in Scholz, not to mention indoctrinating a collection of 14 freshmen and sophomores – more than half of the City High roster – to high school soccer simultaneously, the end result (a 9-5 record, sixth winning campaign in a row) left Scholz and the Little Hawks with plenty of reasons to be proud.

“I call our freshmen the ‘true freshmen’ and our sophomores the ‘red-shirt freshmen’,” Scholz said. “Our team we have, more than half of our team, they are playing their first year of high school soccer. At first, the speed of play was slow. But after our first game, I think they really woke up to what high school soccer is, varsity level. They woke up, they take to everything I am saying, they play possession really well, nice ball on the ground. Yes, they learned a lot this season. They are very fast learners and they are super-coachable. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

After a scoreless first half, Kennedy senior Delaney Holtey put on a show.

The University of Iowa recruit penetrated the City High defense with speed and precision dribbling and scored a pair of goals in the first nine minutes of the second half.

“We knew Delaney was going to be a problem,” said City High senior defender Callie Menzel, a Winona State signee. “We talked about her beforehand, but she is just a beast. She is hard to handle, but I feel like our back line did such a great job the whole entire game. It was just a few easy mistakes to make and she capitalized on them. She is a good player to play against.”

Holtey – who was limited to just nine games in 2019 due to injury – has been masterful all season long in 2021.

Her 24 goals rank sixth in all of 3A.

“Having her break through us, again, young team,” Scholz said. “We learned the hard way. Every time she broke through, she capitalized on our mistake. … Those little learning moments and it happens with a young team all the time, so you can’t be too upset about that. She is a great player and she is going to do well next year at Iowa.”

True to its resilient nature, City High responded to both of Holtey’s goals.

Down 1-0, it took the Little Hawks just three minutes to tie the match when sophomore Claire Brown delivered a perfect pass to junior Mia DePrenger, who scored for the second time this season.

Five minutes later, Holtey gave the Cougars a 2-1 lead with a long, successful run to the goal. Once again, the Little Hawks found an equalizer in the 58th minute when a corner kick from freshman Maclayne Menzel found junior Morgan Turner, who punched home her fourth goal this season.

“I was so proud of us for doing that,” Callie Menzel said. “Because it is so easy to get down and just feel like you already losing when you are down 1-0, but I was so proud of everybody for getting back up and keeping the energy and getting that one back and then they scored again and we got another one back and we stayed in it the whole time. I was really proud of them.”

With less than eight minutes left in regulation and the match still tied at 2-2, Kennedy was awarded a free kick a few yards inside the midfield stripe.

Cougars’ junior Amanda Williams stepped to the ball, an opportunity she envisioned the day before the match.

“I was actually practicing my shots yesterday because I felt like something was going to happen,” Williams said. “I wanted one that was going to be able to have the power from far out or close up. So I stayed after yesterday and when I stepped up to the ball and I watched the ref’s hand go down, meaning it was a direct kick, I saw that corner and they wanted me to pass it to the PK spot, but I saw the shot and knew I wanted it.”

Williams’ strike could not have been placed any better, as it lofted over the City High defense and beyond the outstretched hand of leaping Little Hawks’ goalkeeper Sara Cassady for a jarring 3-2 Kennedy lead. The goal – Williams’ sixth this season – was eerily reminiscent to a similar long strike Williams converted just eight days earlier in a 5-0 Cougars’ win at Dubuque Wahlert.

“This one was a little bit better, I have got to admit,” Williams said. “It just gave me all the energy that I needed and obviously gave the rest of the team the determination to not let anything else happen. None of us wanted to go into overtime, that is for sure.”

Kennedy (9-6) will visit third-ranked Waukee (13-3) in a regional final on Friday to earn a berth in the state tournament.

The Warriors blanked Cedar Rapids Prairie, 10-0, on Wednesday.

City High will turn its attention to developing and improving its young roster and building off an unforgettable 2021 season.

The young Little Hawks should benefit greatly from a return to more traditional offseason activities – which includes club soccer for many of them – as life in general regains a level of normalcy.

“We have a strong group of girls that are coming back that are all friends outside of soccer, too,” Scholz said. “The excitement of playing together in high school when sometimes they play at different clubs outside of high school, just that chemistry that they bring to the field. They are excited, I am excited, I think we are going to have a good year next year, as well.”

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by donating.