Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Coming off a state tournament appearance last season City High entered its season opener against Ottumwa confident.

Perhaps overconfident.

The result a 3-3 tie with the Bulldogs in the opener for both teams on March 31.

“We were thinking we went to state last year, we rivaled the team that won it and they just came out and stunned us,” City High senior Lucas Riley said. “They wanted it more than we did.”

That early tie has proven to be exactly what City High needed.

Since the season-opening draw City High has been impressive posting back-to-back wins after a 2-0 victory over previously unbeaten Liberty High on Tuesday in a Mississippi Valley Conference non-divisional contest at City High.

“To us that was a wakeup call,” City High senior Jack Dancer said. “After that game we were all motivated and used that as fuel. It was good. I’d much rather it be at the beginning of the season than at the end of the season.”

Dancer and junior Wagdi Darya each scored goals on Tuesday as City High improved to 2-0-1 on the season.

Darya gave the Little Hawks a 1-0 lead in the first half when he scored off a Riley feed.

Dancer put the match away when he scored on a penalty kick with 8:57 remaining.

“It’s good to win the town and we’ve got West in a few weeks and it really helps to beat the teams that are close to us,” Riley said. “It gives us a lot of momentum going forward and that’s kind of our big goal at the end of the day we want to win our rivalry games.”

Since allowing three goals in the season-opening draw with Ottumwa the Little Hawks have surrendered just one goal in consecutive wins over Linn-Mar and Liberty High.

Liberty High (3-1) scored nine goals during a 3-0 start to the season before being shutout by City High on Tuesday.

“It was a good slap in the face,” Riley said of the opening loss to Ottumwa. “It showed us that we aren’t that team right now, we’ve got to become that team. That happened and we said that isn’t going to happen again, we have to win our next two games and we’ve done that and now we have to keep the momentum.”

Riley had a chance to give the Little Hawks the lead early but couldn’t convert from close range.

He made sure that City High got on the board in the opening half feeding Darya for the game’s first goal.

Dancer provided the final goal when he converted a penalty kick following a foul in the both with under nine minutes to play.

“It’s really important to get this momentum for our next couple of games,” Dancer said. “We have West in a couple of weeks, another cross-town rivalry, we are always looking forward to that so it’s just important to get momentum going.”

City High will face Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln in Des Moines on Saturday and hosts Cedar Rapids Xavier next Tuesday before facing West High on April 24.

“It’s pretty important and we always like to win the games against teams in the city,” senior Jackson Nichols-Lindsey said. “We got this one and we have West High next.”

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