Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – West High coach Brad Stiles had rehearsed several potential halftime speeches leading up to the annual cross-town showdown with City High on Wednesday.

Thanks to a pair of early strikes from Daniel Fuentes and Kaleab Wendy in a dominating first half from the Trojans all of Stiles’ preparation proved to be unnecessary.

Class 4A fourth-ranked West High scored twice in the opening six minutes and bolted to a 3-0 halftime lead on its way to a resounding 4-1 win over No. 10 City High in the regular season finale for both teams at the University of Iowa Soccer Complex in Iowa City.

“Of all the speeches I thought I was going to have to give I wasn’t planning on being up 3-0,” Stiles said. “That caught me a little off guard.”

The halftime speech from Stiles was the only time the Trojans were unprepared on Wednesday.

Wendy scored less than four minutes into the game and Fuentes added a goal a little more than two minutes later to give West High a stunning 2-0 cushion less than six minutes into the match.

Junior Liam Teghanemt added a first-half goal as West High (17-2) extended its winning streak to five over City High.

“From the start we had a game plan and we stuck to it,” Teghanemt said. “We practiced a drill we had and the first four minutes Daniel scored and it was the exact drill that Stiles had. I think that’s just great coaching.”

Wendy gave the Trojans the lead and the momentum early with his 12 goal of the season with 36:41 remaining in the first half.

Fuentes made it 2-0 with his team-high 22 goal with 34:12 remaining in the opening period.

“I think we work together really well to create a lot of good chances and we’ve put a decent amount of them in the back of the net,” Fuentes said. “It’s just good teamwork and a lot of practice together.”

West High wasn’t done.

The Trojans made it 3-0 when Tghanemt slammed in a rebound of a Ismail Mohamed shot with 3:18 remaining in the first half.

“We didn’t want to go into the half 2-0, which is a dangerous lead,” Teghanemt said. “Ish shot it and the ball came back and I just hit it and happened to get one.”

That was more than enough for West High, which added a second half goal from Manny Medina with 6:56 remaining.

It was the 12^th time this season West High had scored at least three goals in a match and came after the Trojans were shutout in a 1-0 loss to top-ranked Johnston on Saturday.

“I think we had it right as far as some of the ideas to attack and it worked well,” Stiles said. “Two goals in six minutes off of something that we had talked about for a few days, I am proud of our goals for listening and being coachable.”

City High got a second-half goal from Lucas Riley but dropped to 10-3 with the loss.

Both teams will now turn their attention to the postseason.

City High will be seeking to snap a two-match losing streak when it hosts Ankeny Centennial (5-11) in a Class 4A, substate 7 semifinal on Monday.

West High will host Dubuque Senior (5-11) in a Class 4A, substate 4 semifinal on Monday.

“We feel confident going into substate,” Fuentes said. “We played a great team here and had a comfortable win and going in I don’t think we expected to win by this many goals so I think we feel ready to go and ready for postseason.”

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