Norwalk boys soccer coach Dustin Kralich is confident that a challenging early-season schedule will pay off big time in the end for this year’s Warriors.

Norwalk is 0-2 following last week’s losses to Dowling Catholic and Ames. Tuesday’s Little Hawkeye Conference opener at Pella was postponed due to severe weather. The upcoming schedule doesn’t get any easier, with games against Class 4A foes Ankeny Centennial, Ankeny, Cedar Rapids Prairie, West Des Moines Valley and Waukee Northwest all slated before April 15.

Coach Kralich calls this year’s first eight games a “murderer’s row of opponents,” but believes the Warriors will become a much better team from the beginning of the season to the end. Norwalk finished 9-9 overall last spring, going 6-1 in the Little Hawkeye to claim a share of its 14th conference title since 2003.

Kralich hopes to contend for another league crown in 2023 and says that competing in a conference as tough as the LHC prepares his team to compete for bigger things down the road. As an added incentive, following an expansion to four classes this year the Warriors will no longer be in the state’s large-school division for postseason play.

“The expectations are to compete for championships,” Kralich said. “I think seven of our first eight games are against what will probably end up being top 10 teams in 4A, so our record may be a little deceiving through the first half of the season but we think that will prepare us for the second half… The goal is to get back to the state tournament, and once we get there we think we can compete with anybody in our class.”

Returning varsity players for Norwalk include senior Jack Brown, who has led the team in scoring each of the last two years. Brown finished last season with 12 goals and six assists. Other players with varsity experience are juniors Caden Endres, Jace Davis, Noah Burrow, Grant Fletcher and Drake Stageman, as well as sophomores Jonah Sandhoff and Tavin Ferner. Endres is this year’s early scoring leader with two goals and senior goalie Jacob Rueber has 11 saves.

Kralich says the Warriors are a young team overall and they will have to work through some early inconsistencies and keep moving pieces around until they merge into a cohesive unit. He believes that by season’s end they will hang their hat on being an outstanding defensive team.