Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – It took some time and a little bit of tinkering.

However, by the end of the season the West High soccer team found itself in a familiar position under long-time head coach Brad Stiles.

At the state tournament.

“I think we got some guys figured out in positions, we started to get some rotations figured out and the weather at the beginning of the season was just so awkward that we didn’t really have an opportunity to tinker as soon as we wanted to,” Stiles explained. “It took some time but we put it together at the end.”

West High won five consecutive matches down the stretch, including a road win at third-ranked Cedar Rapids Prairie in the substate final last Friday, to return to the state tournament for the ninth time in the past 10 seasons.

The Trojans came 20 minutes from continuing their late-season charge on Monday in the Class 4A state quarterfinals.

West High (9-6-2) took a 1-0 lead on a first-half goal by Tiago Gonzalez but fourth-ranked Urbandale scored three times in the final 17:40 on its way to a 3-1 win over the Trojans at Valley Stadium in West Des Moines.

“The one thing I recognized from last Friday was that this group didn’t have a lot of playoff experience and for them to beat Prairie like that it was so emotional and I didn’t expect it to be emotional,” Stiles said. “Then I put two and two together and it meant a lot for them to get to this point. They haven’t had as many opportunities and they did it the right way at the end. I’m proud of these guys.”

West High appeared poised to pull off a second consecutive postseason upset early on Monday.

The Trojans had a pair of early scoring opportunities miss just wide in a span of 30 seconds midway through the opening half.

Elias Ortiz had his shot from the top of the box roll just wide right of the post with 21 minutes remaining in a scoreless match.

Less than a minute later Jose Tshikaya had a shot just miss left of the post.

“We had a couple of chances that just missed the side bar and their chances went in and that happens in every game,” Stiles said.

Gonzalez finally gave West High the lead when he ripped a shot past Urbandale keeper Blake Bullerman with 2:36 remaining in the first half.

The sixth goal of the season for Gonzalez stake West High to a 1-0 halftime advantage.

It remained 1-0 until Urbandale broke through with a goal from Messie Ndaruhutse off a Chris Boina with 17:40 remaining.

Urbandale took the lead for good when Emmanuel Mauris scored less than two minutes later.

“They were bound to get one right,” Stiles said. “You have some attacking prowess on that team and they were eventually going to win a one v one and find an opening.”

Boina added a goal with 2:44 remaining to make the score 3-1.

The win was the 10^th in a row for Urbandale (14-2-3) and sends the J-Hawks into the state semifinals for the second consecutive season.

Last season’s 3A state champion, Urbandale will face second-ranked Waukee Northwest or Johnston in the 4A semifinals on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Mediacom Stadium in West Des Moines.

West High, which had a string of four consecutive state tournament appearances snapped last season ended its season at the state tournament for the 24^th time in the past 26 seasons.

“I told these guys here they need to walk out of here with their heads held high,” Stiles said. “They left it on the field and I am proud of them.”

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