Following a scoreless stretch of nearly 79 minutes on Tuesday night, the Norwalk boys soccer team scored twice in a span of 101 seconds to pick up a 2-1 overtime win at Indianola.
Trailing 1-0 since the 33:41 mark of the second half, the Class 3A sixth-ranked Warriors tied the score on a Jace Davis goal with 1:18 left in regulation. Just 23 seconds into sudden-death OT, they won on senior Lukas Dingman’s first goal of the season.
Davis tells KNIA Sports that it was a feeling of elation to rally back late and win the match. “We worked our butts off the whole game,” he said. “You saw it in our players. We are a high-energy team and we’re going to be gritty and fight to the death like we always do. So when that reward comes for all our hard work, it’s pretty special. We all ran to the corner. The whole team celebrated together because we’re just a family and that’s what we do.”
The Little Hawkeye Conference finale included a pair of 30-minute lightning delays – one before the game and another just seven and a half minutes in. Norwalk possessed the ball for most of the first half but missed on a few good opportunities as Indianola goalie Noah Kjellberg was up to the challenge.
The Indians struck quickly to take a 1-0 lead on an Allan Martinez breakaway goal in the 47th minute. It looked like that might be enough, but Norwalk never panicked. Inside of 90 seconds left, Warrior senior Drake Stageman sent a perfect through ball to Davis, whose shot from the right side hit the left post and ricocheted off an Indianola player and into the net.
At the start of OT, Norwalk’s Tyden Eng stole a pass and worked the ball upfield to Dingman on the left sideline. Dingman turned the corner and drilled a crossing shot off an Indianola player for the game-winning goal.
The Warriors improved to 8-8 overall and wrapped up second place in the Little Hawkeye Conference at 5-1. They will close out the regular season Friday night at Des Moines Roosevelt. The Indians are now 4-12 overall, including four one-score defeats, and finished 2-4 in the LHC. They will host Ottumwa on Thursday night.