Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The first 60 minutes of Wednesday’s regional semifinal were just about as stress free for Solon coach Amanda Paulson as a postseason match can be.

Solon scored a pair of first-half goals and built a 3-0 with under 20 minutes to play in a Class 1A, Region 5 showdown with Regina.

“I’ll take it,” Paulson said of the opening 65 minutes.

It was the final 15 minutes that had Paulson’s heart racing.

Solon fought off a furious rally from Regina (11-5-3) down the stretch to keep its magical postseason run alive with a 3-2 win at Regal Field in Iowa City.

“I think I hit 180 (on heart rate) I might have had some alarms going off on my watch,” Paulson said. “It was 15 minutes of dog fight which I don’t like to get into that style of direct panicked play but it is what it is and we dealt with it. It wasn’t pretty but we dealt with it.”

The win was the sixth in a row for Solon (11-6-2) and second consecutive regional road win following a 3-1 quarterfinal win at No. 12 Maquoketa.

Solon will play at fifth-ranked Hudson (17-2) in the Region 5 title game on Friday at 5:30 p.m.

Hudson defeated Anamosa 8-0 in a Region 5 semifinal on Wednesday.

“It was probably not our best performance but we came off of Maquoketa which was another dog fight and we are building momentum,” Paulson said. “A win is a win, I am proud of them. They are fighting and that’s all I can ask for.”

Regina made sure Solon had to fight to the very finish on Wednesday.

The Spartans took control early with a pair of goals in the final 22 minutes of the opening half.

Laney Johnson started the scoring with a goal with 21:21 remaining in the opening half.

Senior Addi Greene gave Solon a 2-0 halftime lead with her 14^th goals of the season off a Sofia Ortega assist with 2:12 remaining before the half.

Ortega played a corner kick short to sophomore Sophia Link who sent the ball back to Ortega.

Ortega found Greene for her team-leading 15^th assist of the season.

“It was different than usual because Ortega always takes our corners but she played it to Link and I thought she was going to shoot it but she played it back to Ortega,” Greene said. “I know all of her through balls are always perfect and I saw it coming and just kind of stuck my chest out and ran through it.”

Solon appeared poised for a stress-free final 15 minutes when Laeni Hinkle put in a loose ball in front of the net to give the Spartans a 3-0 lead with 18:01 remaining.

Regina and senior Morgan Miller had other ideas.

Miller scored a pair of goals in a span of less than 10 minutes, cutting the lead to 3-2 with 7:07 left to play.

“When we got our lead Amanda kept reminding us composure but with urgency,” Solon senior Rose McAtee said. “That’s the big thing that we stressed and that’s what helped us today.”

Regina kept the pressure on in the final six minutes but Solon had an answer to every Regal attack.

Junior keeper Gable Knight had a key save off a Natalie Gahan shot with under three minutes to play to preserve the Solon lead.

“It was very stressful,” McAtee said. “We kind of lost it for like five minutes but then we had to regain our composure, keep the urgency up and fight like heck on defense.”

The win avenged a 1-0 loss for Solon at Regina in the season opener on April 1.

“This has been a year of slow build up of momentum and battling through injuries and mental blocks,” Paulson said. “We’ve just come together. I think our intensity has built, our focus has built, we’ve gained players back.”

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