Pat Harty

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – The Regina boys soccer team makes qualifying for the state tournament look easy, but don’t try telling that to head coach Rick Larew.

“Oh, it was not easy, that was a real good team,” Larew said just moments after Regina had clinched a 12th consecutive trip to the state tournament with a 4-0 victory over South Tama in a Class 1A sub-state final on Saturday. “That’s a really good team.

“We had watched them carefully and I think they played us a really good first half. I think the heat really started playing a role with them and we got some great minutes out of our reserves.”

And yet, despite South Tama’s gritty performance, the second-ranked Regals still pitched a shutout against the No. 6 team in Class 1A with a berth to the state tournament on the line.

“I love shutouts,” Larew said. “We pride ourselves on good defense. We’ve got a strong back line and we play great people on defense. And I love shutouts.”

Regina also has plenty of talent on the offensive end, including sophomore Alec Wick, who scored his team’s first three goals on Saturday, the first coming at the 36-minute mark of the match.

Wick then scored his next two goals with help from assists by senior Jonah Warren.

Warren then completed the scoring for Regina by converting on a penalty kick.

Wick credits Regina’s success to team chemistry and to executing the game plan.

“We just know how to play our game,” Wick said. “We play our own game.”

It would be easy for the Regina players to feel pressure from trying to live up to the program’s high standards.

But Wick said it has just the opposite effect.

“We use it as motivation, but we don’t put pressure on ourselves,” Wick said. “We just play our game.”

There is no secret formula to Regina’s success in boys soccer besides good old-fashioned hard work and preparation.

“I think it’s the coaching staff, them getting us prepared before every game, with all the time and work they put in to get us ready to play and keep us organized,” Warren said.

Larew doesn’t worry about his players becoming complacent or about them taking their success for granted because he constantly guards against that.

“No, but we talk about that,” Larew said. “That you can’t take it for granted because there is nothing given about it. Each team has to work hard independently and find their own way to have success.

“And these guys have done that. I don’t know how the rest of the season is going to go, but they sure have developed as a team and as individuals. I’m just very proud of them.”

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