Kennedy Girls Soccer

Saints No.1, Cougars No.2 in soccer poll

The Xavier Saints and Kennedy Cougars, who won girls state soccer titles last year, are considered two of the top teams in the state again this season.

Xavier was ranked No.1 in Class 2A in the IGHSAU preseason ratings that were released Monday.

Kennedy is ranked No.2 in Class 3A, one notch behind Bettendorf. The Linn-Mar Lions are ranked No.7 in Class 3A.

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Armstrong, Dale, Dickerman top girls all-state soccer

Kayla Amstrong of Xavier, Annie Dale of Xavier and Kaela Dickerman of Kennedy have been named first team all-state by the Iowa High School Soccer Coaches Association.

Armstrong and Dale made the Class 2A all-state team after helping the Saints win the Class 2A state title. Dickerman helped the Cougars capture the Class 3A state crown.

Lauren Konchar and Mary Levett of Xavier received second-team honors in Class 2A.

Olivia Garcia of Linn-Mar was named second team all-state in Class 3A. Rylie Frese of Linn-Mar received Honorable Mention in Class 3A.

A Brit, a Scot and their special girls

A game was about to begin at the state soccer tournament Friday in Muscatine and Doug Graham was patting the girls on the back, slapping hands and encouraging them to play well.

You see coaches do that all the time, but this was different. Graham coaches the Xavier girls soccer team, and he was encouraging Kennedy to play well in its semifinal contest.

This wasn't some phony, insincere "let's be friends" gesture on the part of the Xavier coach. Soccer is a close-knit fraternity (and sorority), and on top of that Graham is a friendly guy who emigrated to the United States from Great Britain 30 years ago.

"He's a Londoner," quipped Kennedy Coach Andrew McKnight, who is from Scotland. "That's why you can't understand anything he says."

Graham is the co-owner (with his sister) of The Londoner, a British pub and restaurant in Cedar Rapids, and he made a friendly offer to the Cougars if they continued their surprising march through the state tournament and actually won the Class 3A title.

"What did he say?" McKnight asked Hannah Palomo, one of his star players, feigning not to remember.

"Free food and drink," Palomo responded on cue.

"So what is that?," McKnight wondered. "All the diet coke you can drink?"

There might be a few pints of The Londoner's favorite brew tossed in for the adults, along with free food and pop for the girls.

Kennedy upheld its end of the bargain, upsetting top-ranked Ankeny for the Class 3A title. That came just a few hours after Xavier whipped North Scott, 3-1, for the Class 2A crown, making 42nd Street NE the capital of Iowa girls soccer for 2012.

It was a remarkable 72 hours for the Saints and Cougars at the Muscatine Soccer Complex. The Saints became the first school in the 86-year history of girls sports in Iowa to win seven consecutive state titles in any sport, and the Cougars became one of the few teams in state history to upset the No. 3, No. 2 and No. 1 teams on consecutive days to claim a state title of their own.

Ankeny was undefeated this year and had won 31 straight matches since 2011 before the seventh-ranked Cougars knocked them off their perch.

McKnight was kidding about Graham and his British accent, of course, but there were times during the tournament when the Saints would look at Graham with blank expressions after he got done shouting instructions.

"What did he just say?," they seemed to be thinking.

"He's unique, definitely," said Xavier star Kayla Armstrong, a junior who is being recruited by top Division I schools. "He's got his own coaching style and he tries to get us motivated. We really want to come out and win for him."

You can hear Graham's voice all over the pitch, even if you can't always decipher his words.

"Annie DALE! Great ball, Annie! GREAT ball!," he'd shout after a good pass.

"Kayla ARMSTRONG! Great shot, Kayla. GREAT shot," or "Un-LUCKY, Kayla, Un-LUCKY," if a ball would go slightly astray.

Graham would look for spots to get Holly "Flip Throw" Hazelton into the game, especially if there was a chance for Hazelton to execute one of her crowd-pleasing "Windmill" throw-ins where she puts the ball on the ground, backs up a few steps, does a 360-degree cartwheel, grabs the ball and tosses it a long way over a surprised defender's head.

Graham would break into a big smile every time that happened, then give Hazelton a hug or slap hands the next time she came back to the bench for a rest.

Graham has been Xavier's head coach for four years and is 4-for-4 at the state tournament. McKnight became Kennedy's head coach this year and won the 3A title in his first season at the helm.

McKnight, 40, isn't nearly as flamboyant as Graham, who turned 50 on Saturday, but he's obviously an effective coach with his own style. McKnight encourages his girls to make long passes to the forwards, trying to break someone free for a quick goal, and sure enough it worked several times at key spots in the tournament.

McKnight works with the U.S. Olympic Development program in Iowa and helped coach the successful Iowa City Alliant club soccer program for many years. He thinks that a happy, motivated team that plays together is the best formula for success and credits the entire Kennedy staff for making that happen this year.

"I firmly believe that," he remarked.

You don't have to love soccer to admire the way Graham and McKnight coached their teams to state titles in Muscatine. And you don't have to love soccer to admire the athleticism and skill of their talented players.

The Saints and Cougars ran up and down the 120-yard field for three straight days with the temperature in the mid-80's, ignoring bumps and bruises and sore legs in their pursuit of excellence and state crowns.

Girls soccer is not always a polite ladies sport, at least not the way it was played in Muscatine.

"They're athletes," said Graham. "Tomorrow they become young ladies again. When they're dressed in blue with their soccer cleats on, they're athletes."

There was no misunderstanding that.

Cougars believe; stun No. 1 Ankeny

MUSCATINE - Sixty-five seconds of lightning brought the Kennedy girls soccer team a lifetime of happy memories Saturday.

The Cougars poured in both of their goals during a 65-second span of the second half and stunned top-ranked Ankeny, 2-1, in the championship game of the Class 3A tournament for their second state title in the past four years.

The victory capped a remarkable performance by the unheralded Cougars at the Muscatine Soccer Complex.

It began Thursday with a 2-0 victory over No. 3 Iowa City West, continued Friday with a 1-0 verdict over No. 2 Bettendorf and ended Saturday with a victory over the No. 1 team that had won 31 straight matches since last year.

Ankeny was the defending state champion and the heavy favorite, but somebody forgot to tell the Cougars.

"I've got 'believe' written on my wrist right here," said Kennedy junior Tory Harman, a member of the all-tournament team. "I think that's what we all needed. We all believed. I think we're the only people that believed in us, but I think that's what kept us going."

The Cougars were ranked seventh when the three-day tournament began, but they were ranked No. 1 in the only poll that counted Saturday.

"It's amazing. It's unreal, almost," said Allie "Hutch" Hutcheson, Kennedy's superb 6-foot-1 goal keeper. "It's awesome."

Hutcheson allowed only one goal in three games - a total of 240 minutes of soccer against the No. 3, No. 2 and No. 1 teams in the state - but for awhile it looked like that one goal might doom the Cougars to second place.

Sydney Hedrick slipped a shot by a diving Hutcheson with 24:32 left in the first half, and for a long time it looked like that lone goal would stand up. Hutcheson was worried.

"A little bit," she admitted. "But at the same time we have some amazing offensive players who can always find the back of the net no matter what. And I knew there was time to get at least one in to get into overtime."

There was no need for overtime on this day, not with the Cougars capturing lightning in a bottle.

The explosion began when Annie Feltes took a free kick that headed straight for the goal. Nikkie Inskeep, the Ankeny keeper, made the initial save, but the ball got loose and there was a wild scramble with arms and legs all over the place.

In the midst of all that mayhem, Kennedy sophomore Kaela Dickerman was credited with getting the ball into the net. That tied the game, 1-1, with 18:10 left in the match and gave the Cougars new life.

About a minute later, Feltes made a long pass to Hannah Palomo that stretched the defense and gave Palomo a chance to get into position for a shot. She did just that and found the left corner for a goal with 17:05 remaining.

In the space of 65 seconds, the Cougars turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 advantage.

"We've had the mentality this year that we're never done," said Coach Andrew McKnight, who led Kennedy to the state title in his first year as boss. "If we hang close enough, we know there are players on the team who are capable of doing special things.

"We saw that today and we saw that yesterday and we saw it the day before."

Kennedy was ranked No. 7 and was playing in the state tournament for the seventh straight year. "I guess it's just lucky No. 7," said Dickerman, who was named the captain of the Class 3A all-tournament team for her good work in three games.

Dickerman's older sister, Mckenzie, plays defense for the Cougars, and the whole family has been planning to take a trip to Disney World this August. "We were going anyway," said Kaela Dickerman, "so it's kind of lucky I can say, 'I'm going to Disney World!' "

Palomo, battling a painful knee injury, joined Hutcheson, Harman and Dickerman on the all-tournament team. She searched for the right words to express her feelings after Kennedy was the surprise winner of the 3A title.

"Our team is everything to me right now," she said. "Honestly ... passion, emotion and heart is what won that game. It happened, and I'm proud of my team."