Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Ava Bell has scored 16 goals in her three seasons of varsity soccer.

None were as big or as timely as the goal Bell had on Tuesday.

Bell snapped a scoreless tie with 5:17 remaining to lift City High to a 1-0 win over Cedar Falls (7-8) in a Class 3A, Region 1 semifinal at City High.

“You could see as a freshman that Ava was a player that was going to step up in big moments and this was her big moment,” City High coach Corbin Scholz said. “She’s been stepping up for us all season and I am really proud of her she really deserved that today.”

Bell had a pair of goals as a freshman, scored six more as a sophomore and entered Tuesday’s regional semifinal third on the team with seven goals this season.

The eighth goal of the season for Bell was by far the biggest and sends City High (10-4) into the Region 1 title game where it will face top-ranked Waukee Northwest (15-1) on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Waukee.

Waukee Northwest defeated Cedar Rapids Jefferson 10-0 in the other Region 1 semifinal on Tuesday.

“I feel really good about it, I think the team worked really hard and I think they deserved it,” Scholz said. “This was a big game and we have another huge game coming up.”

For nearly 75 minutes on Tuesday the two teams were scoreless just as they were after 100 minutes of action a year ago in a match won 1-0 by City High in penalty kicks.

City High controlled the action from the outset but couldn’t convert a scoring opportunity.

After halftime the Little Hawks made an adjustment.

“Starting the second half we switched up our formation a little bit so we only played with three defenders in the second half,” Scholz said. “We pushed one person up to the top line and that helped moved the possession from the lower half of the field into the mid part of the field and we kept the ball over here almost the whole time. That helped us with having opportunities to move forward easier.”

Even with an extra player in attack City High couldn’t convert despite several chances.

“All I was thinking the last 10 minutes is we can’t let this go into pks like it did last year,” Bell said. “We talked about taking as many shots as we could get, every chance you get take a shot because that’s all we can have.”

Finally, Bell saw an opening.

“(The keeper) barely grabbed the last shot I had and all I saw was an open goal,” Bell said. “I thought I might as well try again.”

Bell’s shot from distance found the back of the net with 5:17 remaining and the City High defense did the rest, posting a third consecutive shutout.

“Ava when she sees an opportunity she always takes it,” City High senior Claire Brown said. “I think her confidence from working on shots has really come into games.”

The win was the fourth straight and ninth in their last 10 for City High which started the season 1-3.

“We took some hard losses so coming back to win this feels really good,” Bell said. “It was just team chemistry. We needed to work together and be part of a team better. I think it was just the chemistry thing we were lacking and we’ve really bonded as a team.”

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