Lions roar at State Soccer

  The Clear Lake boys soccer team earned a third place finish at the Class 1A State Soccer Tournament which concluded Tuesday, June 10, at the Cownie Soccer complex in Des Moines. 

 The Lions faced the tournament’s top seed, Beckman Catholic, Dyersville (20-2) in the third place match Tuesday morning. The game was postponed due to inclement weather Saturday. The Lions defeated last year’s runner-up, 2-1. Details of that match will appear next week.
Clear Lake concluded the season with a 17-4 record. Their only losses of the regular season were to Webster City and twice to the top-ranked team in Class 2A, Waverly-Shell Rock. They fell in the State semi-finals to defending State Champion Iowa City Regina, 2-1.

CL 2, MOC-Floyd Valley 1
The Lions opened tournament play Thursday, June 5, against 11th ranked MOC-Floyd Valley.  The fifth rated Lions (1A) found themselves down 1-0 with about 10-minutes to go, but rallied for an inspired 2-1 quarterfinal victory.
Clear Lake, making its first appearance in the State Tournament since 2010, appeared a bit unnerved in the first half, but found their game after the break. 
MOC-Floyd Valley struck early.  The Dutchmen scored in the 13th minute, then kept the Lions at bay.
Antonio DiMarco converted a penalty kick after an MOC-Floyd Valley handball and pulled the Lions even at 1-1 in the 55th  minute.  Less than a minute later, Ernie Miszewski put a header in the back of the net for what would turn out to be the winning goal. 
The Lions, seeded third in the tournament, outshot the Dutchmen 29-7 and took 17 shots on goal.  

Iowa City Regina 2, CL 1
The Lions advanced to meet second-seeded and defending state champion Iowa City Regina in the semi-finals on Friday.  The game was nearly a repeat of the State opener, but Clear Lake was left one-run short of of a win, 2-1.
The win was also a repeat in the sense that it was Iowa City Regina which also ended the 2010 Lions’ hopes for its first State title in the sport.
Regina defeated West Central Valley in its quarterfinal match.
The Lions led 1-0 at the end of the first half, thanks to a goal provided by Antonio DiMarco in the 25th minute.  
Much like the Lions had done the day before, Regina was able to regroup at halftime and emerged from the break a different team.  The Regals tied the score just five minutes into the second half.  The 1-1 score stood unchanged until, with 10:26 to go, a loose ball in front of the Clear Lake net was put in.