Prairie Boys Soccer

Cedar Falls blanks Prairie in boys soccer

CEDAR FALLS - The Cedar Falls Tigers made their shots count against Prairie Thursday in a Mississippi Valley Conference match of ranked teams.

No. 10 Cedar Falls got only five shots on goal, but three of them found paydirt for a 3-0 victory. No. 13 Prairie (1-2, 0-1 MVC) had nine shots on goal, but none of them tickled the twine.

Ahmad Shehata, Brady Cervetti and Aaron Klein tallied for the Tigers.

Hawks split on opening day

Prairie fell behind early and just couldn’t find the back of the net Saturday morning as they fell to No. 7 Johnston, 1-0, at Lower Kingston in its first game of the season.

The Hawks bounced back and beat No. 11 Urbandale, 2-1, in their afternoon match.

Johnston's goal came midway through the first half when Prairie senior midfielder Brady Anderson was called for a foul inside the box on a challenge from behind. Johnston netted the penalty kick just past the outstretched hands of keeper Adam Kueny.

“It was unfortunate, it was unlucky, you hate to lose a game on a penalty kick like that, but it is what it is,” said Coach Matt Erlandson.

One bright spot for the Hawks was the their defense. Other than the penalty kick, Prairie didn’t allow much space to shoot and did a good job of keeping the Johnston attack off balance.

“I thought our defense, our back line, played really well,” Erlandson said. “We didn’t give up many shots, that’s what we focus on is shut down the shots and crosses, and our keeper, Adam (Kueny), played really well.”

Offensively, however, Prairie had trouble putting much pressure on the Dragons' defense. The Hawks mounted some dangerous attacks and found some teammates behind the defense on several occasions, but Johnston was always quick to recover.

“They would pack it in when we would get in there and we would either have a bad touch towards the end there in the final third or they would just collapse on us and we couldn’t get a shot off,” Erlandson said. “I really don’t think that we need to be inside the box with the players we have. We should be taking shots outside or around the 18.”

 First Game
Johnston 1, Prairie 0

Second Game
Prairie 2, Urbandale 1

Goals -- CRP: Colyn Snyder, Santiago Ortiz. Assists -- CRP: Ortiz, Jason Vizzini.

Hawks hope to break through to state soccer

The ultimate goal for the Cedar Rapids Prairie boys is to go where they have never gone before - the state soccer tournament.

The Hawks have been agonizingly close each of the last three years, but every time they have fallen in the substate championship. This season Prairie is preparing to do everything necessary to finally break through.

“We want to do as well as possible in the regular season so we get a good substate draw,” said senior Brady Anderson. “For the last three years we have been in the substate finals and we played (Iowa City) West and Kennedy. Those are tough games, so we need to get a good substate draw.”

That is something the Hawks have struggled with. In the regular season they have ended with mediocre records before flipping the switch and making a mini-run in substate. This year, Prairie is looking to stop that trend.

“It’s not the best way to go about a season,” Anderson said. “We have picked it up in the past in substate and we are definitely going to pick it up in substate this year, but we are going to play well the whole season.”

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