Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – After a strong start to the season City High was dealt a double dose of disappointment last week.

The Little Hawks couldn’t complete a comeback in a 4-3 loss to cross-town rival West High last Thursday and saw a lead disappear late while settling for a 2-2 tie against sixth-ranked West Des Moines Dowling on Saturday.

City High ditched the disappointing recent results in resounding fashion on Tuesday.

Class 4A ninth-ranked City High dominated the second half on its way to a 2-0 win over fifth-ranked Cedar Rapids Prairie (7-3) on a sunny afternoon at City High.

“It felt really good to get a good win here after getting close so many times,” City High senior Jack Dancer said. “To put it all together today and get the win feels good.”

Dancer and fellow senior Jackson Nichols-Lindsey each scored goals as City High improved to 6-1-2 on the season with its first win of the season over a top-five ranked team in Class 4A.

The City High win snapped a four-game winning streak for Cedar Rapids Prairie which included wins over West Des Moines Dowling and 3A third-ranked Liberty High.

“It feels great,” Nichols-Lindsey said. “Beating the fifth-ranked team is going to do a lot for our confidence and our ranking so it’s great.”

Dancer and Nichols-Lindsey took care of the scoring with goals on impressive individual efforts but it was the defensive intensity that stood out on Tuesday.

The shutout was the first for City High in its last four matches and came after the Little Hawks allowed seven goals in its previous three matches.

“This team is so talented, they have so much going forward that we are always going to create chances, our goal has to be don’t let other teams score goals that they don’t deserve,” City High coach Jose Fajardo said. “We didn’t allow those types of goals today.”

Dancer snapped a scoreless tie when he scored on a free kick from outside the box with 14:31 remaining in the opening quarter.

The senior slipped a low shot through the wall of Cedar Rapids Prairie defenders and it skipped into the lower left hand corner of the goal.

“It slipped through the wall,” Dancer said. “I wanted it to go up and over so there was a little bit of luck involved but I saw the keeper was set up really far to the right and I thought if I could get it on frame on the left side of the goal it was going to go in.”

Nichols-Lindsey provided the insurance with one of the most impressive goals of the season less than five minutes into the second half.

Alex Chappell played a perfectly placed ball toward the back post on a corner kick and Nichols-Lindsey came flying into the box to score on a header.

“That was executed perfectly,” Nichols-Lindsey said. “(Alex Chappell) put in a perfect ball to the back post I don’t think anyone else could have gotten it there.”

It was all City High after that.

The Little Hawks thwarted a Cedar Rapids Prairie attack that had scored 27 goals in its first nine matches.

“I think we defended really well,” Nichols-Lindsey said. “We knew they were going to be very direct and very physical and we met them and we defended really hard.”

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