Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The annual cross-town soccer showdown between City High and West High was delayed 24 hours by a band of thunderstorms that moved across Eastern Iowa on Thursday evening.

Both teams will have to wait at least another year for an opportunity to notch a win over their rival.

City High and West High battled to a 1-1 draw on Friday evening in a showdown between perennial powers at the University of Iowa Soccer Complex in Iowa City.

“It’s definitely a different feeling with it ending this way,” West High coach Brad Stiles said. “I thought the effort from my guys today was fantastic. For them to play a full 80 minutes is a good sign considering we haven’t played a whole lot.”

City High (2-2-2) led for much of the match after taking an early lead on a Taylor Salinas goal in the 13^th minute.

West High (3-2-1) answered back late to salvage the tie.

The Trojans pulled even on a Caleb Hynek goal with 23:54 remaining but couldn’t add another to take the lead.

“The way I look at it is we did not perform in the second half to be unhappy about the score,” City High coach Jose Fajardo said. “Obviously the goal was preventable, we made a mistake and we talked that we can not be making mistakes on both ends.”

City High jumped on top early when Salinas connected on a free kick from just outside the box with 28:36 remaining in the first half.

Salinas lofted a shot from the left side of the box that glanced off the cross bar and across the goal line to give the Little Hawks an early 1-0 advantage.

“We played well in the first half,” Fajardo said. “The first few minutes we looked a little uncomfortable and I feel like the last 30 minutes of the first half we looked really good.”

It remained a 1-0 City High lead until Hynek came up with the equalizer with 23:54 remaining.

The junior slipped a low shot from the top of the box past City High keeper Ben Borger-Germann to even the score at 1-1.

“I thought we connected a lot of passes going forward at the very beginning of the game and a majority of the second half there was a little lull in their in the first half and it was right before they scored,” Stiles said. “We were better with that in the second half.”

West High nearly came up with the go-ahead goal in the final two minutes.

Junior Elias Ortiz had a rocket from the top of the box ricochet off the crossbar with 1:50 remaining.

“Watching Elias hit that last shot and their keeper not jumping just turning and kind of watching, yeah,” Stiles said. “So close.”

City High was attempting to secure its first win over West High since 2018 while West High was looking to get back in the win column after a pair of losses in Des Moines last weekend.

Neither side got exactly what it wanted, or expected on Friday.

“The second half they obviously changed some things, they put more players up, they took some players out of the defense and that put more pressure on us and we did not take advantage of the spaces that we had,” Fajardo said. “We had a few looks we could have done better and that’s where the you can see the inexperience of our players.”

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