By Douglas Miles

Your Prep Sports

MARION – In order to beat the Lions, Jose Michel Fajardo implored his team to play like one.

That was the message from the longtime City High boys’ soccer coach at halftime of a Class 4A substate semifinal at Linn-Mar.

Fajardo’s team had just snatched a 1-0 lead with 2:18 to go in the first half and he knew only a stout defensive effort would allow it to stand up.

“When it’s zero-zero and you’re dominating a game, you’re still confident,” City High senior captain Emmitt Hansen said. “But once you get that goal, you know you can kind of just sit back. ‘Play like a lion,’ Jose said. Play like a lion on defense and don’t let anyone get by you.”

Nothing did get by the City High defense in the second half as its youthful group of defenders preserved the slim advantage and sealed Monday night’s 1-0 victory for the 15th-ranked Little Hawks over No. 13 Linn-Mar.

“We have been talented the whole year,” Fajardo said. “We are only guilty for our own results. No one has outplayed us this year. We were as good as anybody in the state. Our defenders, we just needed to take care of little details.”

With a back line that included senior Andrew Lopez and a trio of sophomores in Jack Dancer, Jackson Lindsey and Lucas Riley in front of freshman goalkeeper Ben Borger-Germann, the Little Hawks held an opponent scoreless for the third match in a row.

“We prepared well for this game,” Fajardo said. “We knew what we had to do.”

The victory was City High’s 13th in the last 16 meetings with Linn-Mar dating back to 2011 and avenged a 2-0 loss at Linn-Mar Stadium on May 5.

“We talked a lot about set plays because they got us on a free kick last time and a PK (penalty kick),” Hansen said. “So we didn’t want to give any messy fouls, unnecessary fouls. So just overall being patient in the back and letting them come to us.”

Just as it appeared the City High offensive attack was about to complete another half against the Lions without a goal, Wartburg signee Alima Mmunga passed the ball up the field to a streaking Joel Eckhart, who raced in from the right sideline ahead of the tardy Linn-Mar defense and punched the ball past the Lions’ goalkeeper from about 35 feet away in the 38th minute.

“I just saw an opening,” Eckhart said. “Great through ball from Alima and then I thought I was going to miss it, honestly. Glad it went in.”

Eckhart scored his first varsity goal in the regular-season finale May 12 against Cedar Rapids Washington.

Monday night’s tally is two scores in the last two matches for the junior defender/midfielder, who continues to work his way back from an anterior-cruciate ligament tear in his left knee that he sustained last August while playing club ball in Colorado.

“It’s getting better,” Eckhart said. “I’m still working in the back, still. My fitness isn’t great. My touch isn’t, either. But we’re getting there.”

The season ended for Linn-Mar at 10-8 with losses in four of its last five matches.

City High (8-6) can earn its first trip to the state tournament since 2018 with a victory in a 4A substate final against No. 10 Cedar Rapids Kennedy (11-2) Wednesday at 7 at Kingston Stadium in Cedar Rapids.

The Little Hawks handed the then-No. 1 Cougars their first defeat of the season, 2-1, on April 25.

“The same thing as this game,” Hansen said. “We just need that mentality. We have been lacking right away starting the game off strong, but this game really proved that we can play 80 minutes strong.”

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