Norwalk’s number two sports story of the past school year is the Warrior girls soccer team culminating another outstanding season with a second straight trip to the Class 2A State Tournament semifinals.

Coach Andrew Messer’s squad placed second to eventual 2A champion Dallas Center-Grimes in the Little Hawkeye Conference and finished 17-4 overall following a 1-0 loss to Waverly-Shell Rock in the state semifinals. The third-ranked Warriors outshot the Go-Hawks on goal, 13-2, but could not find the back of the net.

The pinnacle of Norwalk’s season occurred in the state tourney quarterfinals at Cownie Soccer Complex in Des Moines. Trailing Lewis Central 1-0 at halftime, the Warriors dominated the second half behind JoJo Bice’s three-goal hat trick and prevailed 3-1.

Bice, who scored 46 goals on the season, was one of 10 seniors on the Warrior roster, joined by Reagan Teut, Marin Randall, Hannah Kehoe, Lexi Popken, Serenity Madonia, Allison Schumacher, Reagan Holtorf, Hailey Schreiber and Elise Heckert.

Seven of those senior players were Norwalk starters and three have signed to play collegiate soccer: Bice at Iowa State, Madonia at Wartburg and Schreiber at Loras. Coach Messer told KNIA Sports after the final game that saying goodbye to this year’s senior group was hard to do.

“This group of seniors – going all four years, going through COVID together, going through so many different things together – being able to give each other hugs at the very end of it, that means something to me and that’s going to mean a lot more than any championship,” Messer said. “I’m just super proud of them. Love ‘em. Love every single player on the team. I’m sad that it’s done, but I’m happy that it happened.”

Goal-scoring leaders for the 2022 Warriors included Bice with 46, freshman Braelyn Clark 12 and sophomore Anna Larson eight. Norwalk scored 96 goals in 21 games while junior Zoey Davenport and freshman Ellie Dueland combined to allow just 11 opposing scores.