Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – It took nearly 11 extra minutes of soccer for top-ranked Johnston to sneak past City High in the Class 4A quarterfinals on Wednesday.

The defending champions needed even more time to take out a second Iowa City opponent on Friday.

Top-ranked Johnston defeated fourth-ranked West High 2-1 in a 4A semifinal at Mediacom Stadium that came down to penalty kicks.

Johnston edged West High 4-3 in the penalty kick shootout to return to the 4A title game for the second consecutive season.

“I told our guys earlier today this game isn’t going to be eight hours, you get 80 minutes,” West High coach Brad Stiles said. “We got a little bit of extra time today and I think they left it on the field today.”

The third meeting between the two perennial powers in the past two seasons was every bit as tightly contested as the previous two matches which were both decided by a single goal.

Johnston rallied from a 2-0 deficit to down West High 3-2 in the state title match in double overtime last season and won a 1-0 contest over the Trojans earlier this month.

Friday’s rematch wasn’t decided until the fifth and final kick off the shootout when Daniel Fuentes’ shot caromed off the right post.

“I thought for sure it would be like a 3-2 game similar to the way the final ended up last year,” Stiles said. “There are just too many good athletes on the field and too many guys that are hungry to go score a goal but post out, I don’t know how much closer you can get.”

West High struck first on Friday when Ismail Mohamed slipped in a shot from just in front of the goal with 20:56 remaining in the first half.

The ninth goal of the season for Mohamed came after Johnston controlled possession for much of the opening 20 minutes.

It was also all the scoring West High could muster in 100 minutes of soccer.

“That might be the theme of it, we created some chances and didn’t get a finish,” Stiles said. “Their keeper made a big save halfway through the second half and we’ve been scoring a lot of goals and one wasn’t enough today.”

Johnston pulled even on a Kyron Pope goal with 7:24 remaining in the first half.

Neither team could find the back of the net over the final 67 plus minutes.

West High keeper Jacob Gilliam kept the Trojans alive with a nice save with his lower body on a shot by Pope from point blank range with 7:30 remaining in the second overtime.

Another pop shot was on target less than a minute later but West High’s Meshaal Mohamed was able to deflect it away.

Johnston only gained an advantage in penalty kicks converting on their first four attempts and taking advantage of a pair of West High shots that bounced off the same post.

Johnston (19-2) will play the winner of seventh-ranked Pleasant Valley (15-2) and second-ranked West Des Moines Dowling (18-2) in the state title match on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Mediacom Stadium.

West High closed the season 20-3.

“From the classes that I’ve had recently these (seniors) are the ones that have matured the most,” Stiles said. “When they were sophomores they were really immature and I think at this point they’ve left the program in a good place and they’ve done what they’ve needed to do. We didn’t get a win today but they’ve done things with class and we can take that with us.”

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