Des Moines Roosevelt boys soccer team coming together at the perfect time

It's Monday night at Des Moines Roosevelt High School as rain and severe weather are blowing in from the west, but another storm is brewing on the soccer field between No. 2 Des Moines Hoover (Class 3A) and No. 8 Des Moines Roosevelt (Class 4A).

Both squads are in the midst of their best seasons in recent memory with Hoover at 12-1 and Roosevelt at 9-3. In a matchup that is always contentious between two Des Moines schools, with Roosevelt holding a 6-5 record against Hoover since 2011 per gobound.com, this one would be no different as the squads held for a 1-1 tie through 40 minutes of regulation and two 10-minute overtime periods.

As whistles blew to mark the end of the second 10-minute overtime period, players dropped to the ground in exhaustion. Coaches took the field and trotted to their goalkeepers, looking to give them a pep talk prior to penalty kicks to decide the winner.

On the Roughriders side, coach Matt Ream and junior captain goalkeeper Caden Lane appeared confident, as Lane fended off sustained pressure and shots from Des Moines Hoover all game long. However, there was another issue aside from that.

Midway through the second half, Lane dove to the ball looking to gather possession for his team as a Hoover player slid toward the ball in the box. With the studs of his cleats sticking out, the Hoover player accidentally struck Lane in the mouth with his cleats, cracking a molar tooth and cutting open Lane's face.

Yet, Lane remained undeterred, saving two crucial penalty kicks to help Roosevelt clinch its 10th win of the season. The last time the Roughriders did that was in 2018, so on the celebrations went as the Roughrider bench and fans stormed the field after his second save and after senior Ethan Rodriguez clinched the game with his penalty kick.

With his blood pumping following a high-anxiety moment and wild celebration, that pain started to settle in a bit for Lane.

"The adrenaline's definitely keeping it up and now I'm starting to feel a little bit more," Lane joked.

Monday night was a glimpse at how Roosevelt has gotten to this point, ranked inside the top 10 and beating one of the state's best for just the second time this season.

Lane, while just a junior, earned captain status for moments like he had on Monday night. Despite being thrusted into a high-pressure moment and dealing with sustained pressure from Hoover all night, he was even-keeled during and after the match in spite of the cracked tooth. He spent much of the night directing his defense in front of him, shouting instructions and directing traffic as Hoover continued to pressure in the Roosevelt half.

"Caden has demonstrated a maturity beyond his years that not many players have," Ream said. "He's always been very calm under pressure. He was absolutely up for this moment tonight."

In front of Lane is the spearhead of the Roosevelt offense, junior forward Ephraim Lunganga. On the year, Lunganga has a team-leading 16 goals, including a beautiful play on the first half of this game where Lunganga sped ahead of the defense and converted on a one-on-one chance against the goalkeeper.

His pace as a forward is noticeable from the first whistle, but he was completely unknown to the Iowa soccer community until this spring. Until this season, Lunganga had never played high school soccer as he and his family came to the United States from Africa. At the moment, he and his siblings, two of which are also on the roster, are still picking up the English language, Ream said. Yet, he has become one of the state's premier talents in short order as one of Class 4A's leading goal scorers as he gets comfortable with Iowa soccer and the English language

"Now, I think everyone's aware of him," Ream said.

There were times in the past when Ream said that coming in for training was tough as the team was losing games, losing some excitement. This team, however, has made each day thrilling as the Roughriders looked poised to make noise in the postseason that gets underway next week with substate.

"I cannot wait every single day to see these guys and to have interactions with these guys," Ream said. "I'm enjoying it so much. It feels like they're enjoying it. I think everyone just is enjoying the experience and that makes a difference. Everybody's supportive of each other, we don't have any sort of cancerous pieces in the team here. Everyone's just enjoying the game."

Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines Roosevelt soccer shows it has arrived in win over Hoover