The Norwalk boys soccer team ventures to Mediacom Stadium in Des Moines today for the semifinal round of the Class 3A State Tournament. The third-ranked Warriors will face fourth-ranked Urbandale at Noon in a rematch from the regular season. The game can be heard live on 94.3 KNIA and kniakrls.com (KNIA3), starting with pregame coverage at 11:45.

Norwalk advanced to the semifinals with a hard-fought 3-1 home win over Indianola in Monday’s quarterfinals. Indianola took a 1-0 lead just 49 seconds into the match, but the Warriors controlled the second half and scored three goals in the final 25 minutes. Urbandale won their quarterfinal match 2-0 over Spencer.

Norwalk enters the contest with an overall record of 11-7-2, which includes a 2-0 victory over Urbandale on May 5. The J-Hawks haven’t lost since, winning their last six games to improve to 12-4.

Norwalk coach Dustin Kralik tells KNIA Sports that the Warriors are looking forward to playing on Mediacom Stadium’s wide field, which suits their possession-oriented style. Kralik adds that he has a lot of confidence in his team.

“We’ve known from the beginning of the year that we were going to be tested. We knew there was going to be some adversity and we saw that,” he said. “We competed in every game we were in. There were some games we shouldn’t have lost that we did, and some tough moments that we went through, but it all culminated in the end of the season and we really feel like we’re starting to peak at the right time. This team’s got all the ingredients to make that run.”

Today’s other 3A semifinal matches No. 2 Iowa City Liberty vs. No. 8 Cedar Rapids Washington at 2:30. The winners meet in the championship game on Friday at 5:00 p.m.