Friday’s matchup between the ninth-ranked Ankeny girls’ soccer team and No. 10 Ames served as a preview of next month’s regional tournament.
The visiting Hawkettes posted a 2-1 victory in a shootout to earn a second-place finish in the CIML Iowa Conference. The loss snapped Ames’ five-game winning streak.
The two teams will meet again in a Class 3A regional semifinal on June 2 at Ankeny.
“What happened (Friday) doesn’t really matter because we know we’re in the same (regional) and will be playing again,” said Ankeny coach Simon Brown. “No matter who comes out of our bracket–us, Ames, Johnston, whoever–is probably going to be the No. 8 seed at state. We’ve just got to keep everybody healthy until we play them in the playoffs.”
The two squads battled on even terms for most of the game. Each side generated some momentum at times, but could not capitalize on its scoring opportunities.
The only goals came on penalty kicks.
“It was a good game,” Little Cyclones coach Bobby Myers told the Ames Tribune. “They are a very good team, and we need to keep pushing to get better and get challenged. We needed this sort of game.”
Ames took a 1-0 lead on a penalty kick by Kate Spiker in the 14th minute. Ankeny nearly scored an equalizer in the 27th minute, but Little Cyclones goalkeeper Trinity Engelhart made a nice recovery to knock the ball away.
The Hawkettes were the more physical team in the second half, and they eventually earned a penalty kick midway through the half. Rachael Christmann then converted to tie the game.
Both teams had chances to score in the overtime periods, but Brown joked that his players wanted to go to a shootout anyway.
“They love spending time with each other so they want to make every game last as long as possible and go to PKs,” he said.
During the shootout both teams made two of their first three kicks. Ames then missed on its fourth attempt, and the Hawkettes took advantage by converting their last shots, with the final penalty kick by Teja Pritchard clinching the victory.
“It was good for kids like Teja and Kennedy (Macke) to make their PKs because they both missed against Johnston, and I know that was a big burden on them,” Brown said. “They felt like they let the team down. That may have cost us in our seeding, and they realize that. But we had faith in them. We practice PKs a lot, and we were confident they would score for us.”
Ankeny finished 4-1 in the conference and improved to 7-4 overall. The Little Cyclones’ records dropped to 3-2 and 9-4.
Spiker told the Ames Tribune that she and her teammates are looking forward to the rematch.
“We’re very excited,” she said. “Our speed of play is just going to be increasing and our possession and team bonding–everything–is just going to help us hopefully win against this team next time.”
Ankeny will travel to Southeast Polk on Monday for a non-conference game against the Rams (3-7).