Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – After three consecutive seasons of semifinal heartbreak Regina is returning to the state title match.

The Regals did so in the most dramatic fashion possible and with the unlikeliest of heroes on Thursday.

Sophomore Greve subbed from playing in the field to goalkeeper and came up with a pair of saves as top-ranked Regina (20-0-1) edged fourth-ranked West Central Valley 1-0 (5-4 in penalty kicks) in a Class 1A state semifinal at Mediacom Stadium in Des Moines.

“I trust all seven of those guys that shot with my entire life,” Greve said. “They put most of them away and it made my job really easy. I just had to go out there and pick a side and I got lucky twice.”

Greve called it luck.

The rest of the Regals strongly disagreed with that sentiment from their sophomore defender turned goalkeeper.

Greve, who is a full-time starter in the field, hadn’t played a minute in goal this season.

However, Greve has played keeper most of his career and practices in goal regularly making his performance on the state’s biggest stage no surprise to his coaches and teammates.

“Evan Greve is a sensational goalie, he may be one of the best goalies in the state,” Regina coach Rick Larew said. “For us he plays out in the field but he’s one of the best goalies in the state so it doesn’t surprise me that he did that well because in practice he does that. Our top five can’t score five in a row against him.”

On Thursday West Central Valley (15-2-1) could score on four times in seven attempts against Greve as Regina returned to the state title game for the first time since 2019.

Both teams converted three of their five opportunities to open the penalty kick shootout that followed a scoreless 100 minutes of soccer.

“I thought they were a good team, they understood how to shut us down and that was just pack things in the back,” Larew said. “We kept coming at them, they shut down Laird (Holden) from scoring and I thought we executed our game plan as best we could they are just a very good team that held us in check. That’s only the second time we’ve been held scoreless all year long.”

West Central Valley had an opportunity to win the match on the fifth attempt of the shootout but senior Aiden Clauson had his shot sail just high and off the cross bar.

Regina took advantage.

Kevyn Dominguez and Jackson Kopecky converted their penalty kick attempts to set up Greve’s heroics.

Greve made a diving save of a Garret Wolfe attempt to secure the win and set off a wild Regina celebration.

“He walked up and he was staring to my left the entire time and usually when you get deeper in the lineup that’s a pretty tell tale sign they are trying not to look the way they are going,” Greve said. “I had in my mind I was diving right no matter what. I just dove and saw the ball and make a play.”

The semifinal win came after Regina lost one-goal matches in the semifinals each of the past three seasons.

Regina lost in penalty kicks to Western Christian in 2023, fell to North Fayette Valley in double overtime in 2024 before dropping a 1-0 match to Van Meter last season.

“It’s such a good feeling,” Regina senior Laird Holden said. “We still have a game to go but I can’t stop smiling.”

Regina will face the winner of the second 1A semifinal between Council Bluffs St. Albert (14-4-2) and defending 1A state champion West Sioux (16-1-1) in the 1A title game on Friday at 5 p.m.

“It feels great, I haven’t had this good of a feeling in a long time,” Regina senior Evan Beard said. “We finally got over the hump, it was a little nervous but Evan clutched up in goal and saved us and it feels great to move on to the next round.”

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