AMES — The strong legs of Kate Badding and Natalie Westort powered No. 14 Ames past Sioux City East, 4-0, in the Class 3A Region 4 girls soccer semifinals on June 2 at the Ames High Football Stadium.
Badding found a sweet spot in the middle of the field to nail shots from 25 and 15 yards, and Westort drilled a 30-yarder during the first 22 minutes of play to break the game open.
“Kate came up big,” said Ames coach Bobby Myers. “She definitely had a day and we’re all proud of her because she’s kind of a glue member of the team wanting to do what’s best for everybody. For her to get her moment, it’s really special.”
Badding’s first goal came on a great ball from Carly Selsby. Selsby fired a through ball from the right side that found Badding around 25 yards away from the goal in the middle of the field.
Badding fired off the shot, and it sailed by Sioux City East keeper Melaney Hernandez and into the net to give Ames a 2-0 lead 18 minutes, 34 seconds into the game.
“It was definitely a good feeling,” said Badding. “Not scoring a lot this season and it coming down to one of these games, it meant a lot.”
Badding’s second goal came off a great feed from Lyza Britten. This one was from 15 yards out to stretch the lead to 3-0 and essentially ice the game.
“Those balls that Carly and Lyza gave me, they were great balls,” Badding said. “They really helped a lot.”
Badding had only scored one goal all season prior to the regional semifinal.
“At the beginning of the game I was not really feeling it, but being able to step up and just not think about what was happening before and be able to step up and get past the players and score those goals, it really affected me and obviously it affected our game,” Badding said. “Hopefully I can bring that to our (regional) final on Thursday.”
She made the most out an opportunity to show off her strong leg against the Black Raiders.
“I had knee surgery this summer, so I’ve been working on power shots and just trying to strengthen my leg,” Badding said. “I think it definitely paid off and I’m glad it did.”
Westort scored the first goal on a tremendous 30-yard shot 13:37 into the game. She went down with an injury late in the first half, and Myers kept her out the rest of the way as a precautionary measure.
Those first three goals all came within the first 21:27 of play. After that Ames went into cruise control thanks to its dominant midfield play and outstanding defensive back four, which made life easy for keeper Elizabeth Lehmkuhle.
Selsby wrapped up the scoring with a goal in the final two minutes of regulation.
Sioux City East’s best chance to score came 23 minutes into the second half. The Black Raiders got a good look on a 20-yard shot, but it went a little high and wide right.
Sioux City East finished the season at 9-6-2.
Ames will take a 10-5-2 record into the 3A Region 4 finals against No. 4 Waukee (8-3-3) on June 4 at Waukee. It will be a rematch of the regular season finale between the two teams on May 26, won by Waukee, 3-1, at Waukee.
“This is big,” Myers said. “Our goal is always to get to the regional final — who goes to state?” Myers said. “This is the game you always want to get to and then from there we see what happens. This is a recent opponent and they’re a quality opponent, so we want to be able to take it to them.”
Joe Randleman covers high school sports for the Ames Tribune. Contact him at jrandleman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JoeRandleman
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Ames girls soccer takes care of Sioux City East in regional semifinal
Reporting by Joe Randleman, Ames Tribune / Ames Tribune
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