Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Regina checked yet another goal off its season list on Friday and this one was a big one.

Top-ranked Regina rolled to a 10-0 win over West Branch (10-7-3) in the Class 1A, Substate 4 title match to return to the state tournament for the fourth consecutive season.

“I’d be lying if I said (a state championship) wasn’t the end goal but this has been my favorite season of all of them and just to be here with all my friends it means a lot,” Regina senior Laird Holden said. “I think it shows a lot about every one of these guys as a person.”

The biggest goal for the Regals is the only one that remains.

After semifinals losses each of the last three seasons Regina will be seeking its first state title since 2019 next week at the 1A state tournament at Mediacom Stadium in Des Moines.

“This feels great, it’s exciting tonight but nothing other than a state championship will satisfy us fully,” Regina senior Evan White said. “That’s all we want right now.”

Regina certainly looked like a state championship caliber team in its substate title game win on Friday.

Connor Hoffman and Gabriel Hegelheimer each had hat tricks and six Regals scored goals as the Regals ended the game with 8:02 remaining.

Regina (18-0-1) scored its first goal one minute into the match and had three goals in the opening 13 minutes while stretching its winning streak to 15.

“I am really proud of the way we played,” Holden said. “We’ve worked on fitness and all the technical stuff that every other team would use but I think a few days ago we just have to treat every game like it’s going to be our last and I think if you watched the game you could see that in the first few minutes.”

Regina has outscored 99-5 during its current 15-match winning streak that came after a scoreless tie against Class 3A Pleasant Valley on April 7.

During its 15 consecutive wins the Regals have posted 10 shutouts and haven’t allowed more than one goal in a match.

Regina won its two postseason matches over Cascade and West Branch by a combined score of 21-1.

“It’s always been in the back of our head that we wanted to get to this point but now we have to find a new gear,” Regina senior Drew Greve said. “We have to step it up even a little bit more. I think we played really well tonight, I think against Cascade we played very well but I think we have to find a new gear both technically and athletically the next week.”

Regina revved up its offense early on Friday.

Hoffman started the scoring with his first of three goals exactly one minute into the match.

Holden scored his team-leading 37^th goal of the season less than seven minutes later to expand the lead to 2-0.

“We came out hot, we wanted to score fast,” Holden said. “We couldn’t let them get a goal and park it. We had a plan and we executed.”

Hegelheimer had a goal with 27:32 and Hoffman added a second goal with 18:54 remaining before halftime to push the lead to 4-0.

White scored with 2:30 remaining in the opening half to give Regina a 5-0 lead intermission.

“We try to get that high-octane offense and score right away so that we can get up in the first five minutes and we have kind of a cushion to boost ourselves into more,” White said. “It’s always nice to score first, it’s always nice to get the momentum so I’m glad we could do that tonight and I hope we can do it in the state tournament.”

Hoffman scored less than three minutes into the second half and Hegelheimer had two goals separated by less than seven minutes in the second half.

Reserves Franco Padron and Edwin Gangba each added second-half goals.

“I thought we played very well and I thought we played sharp and we emphasized when you step on the field play well and just play your very best,” Regina coach Rick Larew said. “It’s fair to ask your teammates to play the right way and we try to play with enthusiasm and we did that tonight.”

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