Norwalk’s quest for the state soccer finals fell one goal short on Thursday afternoon. The third-ranked Warriors allowed two goals during a two-minute span and lost to fourth-ranked Urbandale, 2-1, in a Class 3A Boys State Soccer Tournament semifinal at Mediacom Stadium in Des Moines. The game was heard live on 94.3 KNIA and the KNIA3 stream.

Following 53 scoreless minutes, Urbandale struck for back-to-back goals midway through the second half and held on for the victory. With 26:13 remaining, Jeff Nziza stole the ball from a Norwalk defender in space and immediately put one past the goalie to make it 1-0. Less than two minutes later, J-Hawk junior Kenin Kapic received a short corner kick and fired a long cross from the left sideline. Norwalk goalie Jacoby Robbins appeared to get a hand on the high liner, but the ball deflected off the bottom of the crossbar and landed inside the goal line.

Norwalk pushed forward in the final 20 minutes and cut the margin to 2-1 with 13:38 left. Tavin Ferner scored his 25th goal of the season off a nice passing sequence from Hudson Ford to Nolan Fletcher to Ferner, but the Warriors were unable to mount a serious threat down the stretch. Norwalk coach Dustin Kralik tells KNIA Sports that it wasn’t his team’s best performance of the year, but he liked the resilience in their comeback attempt.

“The guys stuck in it and continued to fight and claw their way back and just ran out of time,” Kralik said. “We maybe should have considered making a switch in our shape earlier because we started to see more opportunity after we did change late in the game… A tough way to go out, but [I am] still really proud of the team.”

Norwalk failed to take advantage of seven corner kick opportunities in the first half and saw those chances dissipate after halftime. Urbandale, which lost to the Warriors 2-0 during the regular season, improved to 13-4. The J-Hawks will take on Iowa City Liberty in today’s 3A championship game at 5:00 p.m.

Norwalk finishes the season at 11-8-2 overall, with seven of their eight losses coming by just one goal. The Warriors will lose 10 seniors off the roster, led by a pair of multi-year starters in Ferner and Jonah Sandhoff. The team has advanced to at least the state semifinals the last three years, including a state runner-up showing in 2023.