Metro Sports Report

No.2 Saints earn trip to state soccer

Luke Koechner fired in two goals Saturday as the Xavier Saints blanked Clear Creek-Amana, 4-0, in the Class 2A substate finals at Heco Field.

The second-ranked Saints (14-2) will face seventh-ranked ADM (16-4) in the opening round of the state soccer tournament Thursday at 2:35 p.m. in Des Moines.

Xavier has won six state titles in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011 and 2013.

Koechner gave the Saints an early 1-0 lead on an assist from Stephen Jones. Will Hanigan made it 2-0 with an assist from Luke Duball, then Koechner scored again on an assist from Duball to make it 3-0 at halftime.

Josh Hoffmann finished the scoring in the second half with an assist from Daniel Richardson.

Jordan Even and Richardson shared time in goal for Xavier.

The other first-round games at the Class 2A state tournament feature Sioux City Heelan (15-1) against South Tama (15-4), DeWitt Central (17-1) against Perry (16-3), and Norwalk (15-3) against Waverly-Shell Rock (16-0).

Meet Brett Doe: New Kernels star

They made a classic movie in 1941 called "Meet John Doe," starring Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper as Doe.

Now it's time to meet Brett Doe, who is hitting .311 for the Cedar Rapids Kernels after being one of the last players selected in the 2014 draft.

Paulson, McCann eye state doubles title

Tim Paulson and Trevor McCann met when they were eight years old at Bowman Woods Elementary School and have been tennis buddies ever since.

Now the Linn-Mar High School seniors hope to finish their prep careers by capturing the Class 2A state doubles title at the Veterans Memorial Tennis Center.

Paulson and McCann won both of their matches Friday in convincing style and will face Jackson Hoyt and Oliver Hammond of Cedar Rapids Washington in the semifinals at 10 a.m. Saturday.

"This is it. The last hurrah, I guess," McCann said Friday.

Paulson and McCann, the No. 2 seeds, clipped Tyler Kruzan and Sandeep Yeturu of Waukee in the first round, 6-2, 6-1, and they cruised past Cole Schneider and Ryan Smith of Iowa City West in the quarterfinals, 6-1, 6-0.

Keaton is man of 'Steele' for Kernels

Some players lead their team in home runs, wins and saves when they are in Little League or high school, but Keaton Steele accomplished the rare trifecta when he was a junior at the University of Missouri in 2013.

In fact, he was the only Division I college baseball player in the country that year to perform that particular triple crown.

"I was fortunate to be able to hit and pitch in college," he said Friday night.