The Iowa High School Athletic Association would be hard pressed to find two more evenly matched teams playing for a State Tournament berth than Greene County and the combined West Central Valley/Nodaway Valley Wildcats. Greene County won the Class 1A boys’ soccer Substate 7 title game 2-1 on the sixth penalty kick after 80 minutes of regulation tied 1-1, two 10-minute overtime periods with the teams still tied, a five person round of penalty kicks with each team making three, before the contest finally ended in “sudden victory” with the Wildcats missing their sixth PK, and senior Alex Roberts making his, sending the Rams to the State Tournament on June 1 at the Cownie Sports Complex on the southeast side of Des Moines against a familiar foe in Iowa City Regina at 12:10 p.m. on Tuesday, June 1.. The trip to State is the second in the program’s short three season history. Greene County lost to Region in overtime in 2019 in the quarterfinals.

Goals were tough to come by on Wednesday under sunny and hot conditions with both teams entering play with stingy defenses. Freshman Gesser Aguilar scored for the Rams with 23:51 remaining in the first half and freshman Kamron Kunkle tied it with a goal in the second half with 12:27 left.  The Rams have won five straight and are 14-6 while the Wildcats had their four match winning streak snapped and end at 13-7.

WCV/NV put the ball into the net with 5:04 left in the second OT, but what looked liked the game-winning score was blown dead for a violation by the Wildcats, and the teams played on.

Wednesday’s game was heard on KG98 and streamed on www.raccoonvalleyradio.com.