The #12 (1A) Iowa Falls-Alden Cadets are headed to the regional championship after blanking Garner-Hayfield-Ventura 2-0 on Tuesday night, which aired on 104.9 KLMJ.
The Cadets attacked early and attacked often. The Cadets kept the ball in their attacking third for most of the first half, but the game remained scoreless until Sofia Orozco found a scoring opportunity with 1:39 left in the first half to make the game 1-0. The score would hold into halftime.
In the second half, the Cadets would continue to stifle the Cardinals offensive attack with excellent defense from Demi Beaubien and Susana Lozano limiting the Cardinals leading scorer Bella Schisel’s ability to attack the net. With 3:18 left in regulation, Arabella Myslak found her second goal of the season to put the Cadets up by two and sealed the win for the Cadets.
Iowa Falls-Alden had already beaten Garner-Hayfield-Ventura twice during the regular season, but Head Coach Morgan Vierkandt says the Cadets knew a third matchup would require a different approach.
“This game here, we had a lot of focus on this is a conference opponent, this is a familiar opponent,” says Vierkandt. “It’s always hard to beat a team three times. We got them the first two times. And so I think kind of the key that when we were preparing for this game was we had to innovate. We had to come up with some new stuff, some new things to throw at them. As you know, it’s really hard when you can go into these games; you can feel a little stale. And you always think the things that worked the first time are going to work again. But we really pounded it into their heads that we wanted to do some new things. We tried some new things, switched some people up a little bit, and then some of it worked, some of it, we’ll have to workshop a little bit before Thursday, but overall, it was a really good team win.”
Orozco’s goal late in the first was her eighth of the season. Orozco says the goal was a result of her being aggressive and attacking the net.
“I just thought go to the ball, go to the goal,” says Orozco. “There’s nothing to lose, just go to the goal. And I found the ball on my foot and just scored.”
With the win the Cadets move to 16-2-2 on the season and will host the Class 1A, Region 7 championship on Thursday against the GCGR Rebels.
