HURON After getting off to a rocky start this season, the James Valley Christian boys soccer team finds itself one win away from earning its first South Dakota High School Activities Association-sanctioned state title.
The Vikings, who are the second seed, will squared off against top-seeded Vermillion in the Class A state championship game at 7 p.m. Saturday at Crane-Youngworth Field in Yankton.
Its been great to watch this team embrace investing in this process this year, JVC coach Jory Wipf said. They set goals to have a winning record and earn a home playoff game. Then they were encouraged to dream a little bigger and embraced working toward making the final weekend.
The Vikings bring a 12-4 record into the title tilt after starting the season 0-3.
The growth of young players and our improvement offensively, Wipf pointed to as a key to success for his team this season. We scored 36 goals last season and have 59 this season. Its fun to watch and fun to play when you are as dangerous offensively as we have been.
Sophomore Gavin Waldner and seventh-grader Isaac Fast have done a bulk of the scoring this season for JVC, with 14 goals each. Waldner also had 16 assists, while Isaac Fast has seven assists.
Freshman Noah Fast tallied nine goals this season for the Vikings, while junior Kolby VanDerWerff and freshman Keeghann Hood each had five goals. Sophomore Cole Anderson and eighth-grader Carson Dorris finished with four and three goals, respectively.
Freshman Jonah Niederbaumer started as the goalkeeper for JVC during all 16 games. He recorded 107 saves this season, while allowing 46 goals.
Kolby VanDerWerff has become the on field leader vocally, while Isaac Wipf and Noah Fast are our other captains, Wipf said. Jonah Niederbaumer has really communicated well for us from his goalkeeper position this year.
Gavin Waldner is the catalyst offensively, and has done a good job getting others involved, he said. Isaac Fast has been a tremendous addition offensively.
Included in the three setbacks early in the season for the Vikings was a 8-1 loss to Vermillion in Vermillion.
We had a couple of really bad stretches where things snowballed and we gave up multiple goals in really short periods of time, Wipf said of the earlier meeting between the two teams. Obviously, we have to avoid that. They are really solid, with no real weak spots.
Our lineup has changed a little and inexperienced defenders have had a year to play together, so I fully expect a tight game, he said.
Both teams are making their first appearance in the Class A state title game.
Its special when you make it this far, Wipf said. While it is the first time under the SDHSAA, we made three trips to the state finals under the South Dakota Soccer Association, winning in 2002 and 2010, with a runner-up finish in 2006.
The game will air live on SDPB2-TV, and stream live online at SDPB.org/soccer and on YouTube.
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