When Greene County and AHSTW (Avoca) meet at noon tomorrow for the Class 1A Substate 8 boys’ soccer title and a trip to next week’s State Tournament in Des Moines, fans will be watching four of the top goal scorers in the state. Eighth ranked Greene County features Iowa top goal scorer with 52, and point scorer with 117, in Junior Gutierrez, a junior, as well as sophomore Luis Velazco, currently tied for tenth in the state in goals scored with 26. The sixth ranked Vikings feature a pair of high scoring seniors in Brayton Tuma and Gabe Madsen, both of whom have 29 goals, tying them for seventh most in Iowa.

AHSTW is the top seed in Substate 8 at 18-2 while Greene County is the two seed at 13-5. Both had difficult matches in Wednesday night’s semifinals to get to Saturday’s match. The Vikings needed a shootout after 80 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime to edge Underwood, 2-1. Greene County downed number 13 Riverside on its home field in Oakland by the same 2-1 score, but did it in regulation.

Velazco had a goal and an assist for the Rams vs. Riverside. The Rams usually are high scoring, but on Wednesday, it was the defense and goalkeeping by junior Cael Fisher that really stood out. “Our defense is pretty good. We just need to talk a little bit more, but beside that we played well on Wednesday. Playing good defense takes some pressure off the offense because we don’t get scored on a lot.” The sophomore was asked to comment about Fisher, who came back a week ago after missing two weeks due to appendix surgery. “He’s doing well coming back from his surgery. He’s a great goalie and it’s great to have him back. It makes us feel more comfortable with him back there.”

The Substate 8 final is scheduled to be played in Oakland, but Ram head coach Carl Behne said there is a chance it could get moved. If that happens, we’ll let you know on Raccoon Valley Radio and on www.raccoonvalleyradio.com.