Grundy Center/Gladbrook-Reinbeck sophomore goalkeeper Jaden Hansen (00) turns away a shot on net as freshman defender Emerson Lynch (9) watches during the Rebels’ home game against Dike-New Hartford last Friday in Reinbeck. PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER

REINBECK — Grundy Center/Gladbrook-Reinbeck girls soccer showed plenty of fire in the first half against 10th-ranked (1A) Dike-New Hartford.

But in a flash, it was all undone by the Wolverines.

Camille Landphair scored three goals in a four-minute span for D-NH in an offensive flurry, scoring six goals in 14 minutes en route to a 7-2 victory over GC/G-R at Gladbrook-Reinbeck High School last Friday night (April 21).

D-NH improved to 6-2 overall, while GC/G-R dropped to 3-4, an upset slipping through the hosts fingers after scoring the first two goals of the game and leading 2-1 at halftime.

“We’ve been preaching these last few days that we just needed to come out with kind of a spark,” GC/G-R head coach Aaron Mara said. “We’d lost that spark over the last week or so. And I thought we came out ready to go, not intimidated by a really good Dike team.”

PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER

GC/G-R jumped to the lead 11 minutes in on a Kali Aldrich goal assisted by Dylinn Blohm. Aldrich returned the favor nearly 20 minutes later, assisting on a Blohm goal.

D-NH responded with a high-arcing blow from Gentry Swarts with five minutes to halftime, but that didn’t put a damper on the strong half for the Rebels.

“That first 40 minutes was the best 40 minutes I’ve probably seen all year, and even since I’ve been here coaching,” Mara said. “I’ve been telling the girls pretty much all season that we can compete with anyone, and I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

GC/G-R was able to dodge a couple bullets early in the 2nd half on point-blank shots that the Wolverines lofted over the crossbar.

But Landphair, a UNI recruit, was fouled in the box and awarded a penalty kick that she buried to tie the game at 2-all with 14 minutes left in regulation. She stayed on the attack and added another one within a minute, and Swarts sent in another curving kick that Landphair headed in for a hat trick moments later.

“I thought the first half, we kind of limited everything that she wanted to do,” Mara said. “In the second half, we just got tired and kind of ran out of gas and she was able to do her thing.”

Alaina Steffen added two goals on assists from Landphair prior to Landphair’s fourth and final goal of the night.

“We stayed pretty tight defensively,” Mara said. “They had multiple corners in that first half and we were able to get it out of bounds and reset and get numbers back. In no way, shape or form was I disappointed by our defense at the end of this game.”

It’s the fourth loss in a row for GC/G-R, but three of those defeats have come to teams in the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union rankings. GC/G-R was set to take on another ranked team, No. 11 Denver, back in Reinbeck this week Tuesday.

“I can see the frustration in the girls’ faces,” Mara said. “But we’re going in the right direction and we’ll come back next week.”