With the sun beating down on her, Ankeny forward Rachael Christmann had no desire to go into overtime during the Class 3A quarterfinals of the girls’ state soccer tournament on Tuesday.
A handball in the box against Pleasant Valley in the final minute of regulation gave the Hawkettes an opportunity to break a scoreless tie.
And Christmann didn’t let it go to waste.
The senior booted the ball into the net on a penalty kick for her 15th goal of the season, giving seventh-seeded Ankeny a 1-0 victory at Cownie Soccer Park.
“It feels great,” said Christmann. “We won (the title) in 2019, and that’s our goal again this year. When we qualified, we knew it would be tough. But we didn’t come here to just play today. We wanted to go the whole way.”
Ankeny (13-4) avenged a 1-0 overtime loss to Pleasant Valley on April 17. The second-seeded Spartans (17-3) had outscored their last seven opponents by a 30-0 margin.
“I think since last time we played them in Bettendorf we were really seeking revenge here,” said Ankeny goalkeeper Jasmine Moser. “We knew we should have won and came through. We knew we were the better team so we put ourselves out there and our awesome star up top, Rachael, really finished for us, and it was awesome.”
Neither team generated much of an offensive attack on a 90-degree afternoon. Moser and Pleasant Valley goalkeepers Libby Kamp and Sydney Zabel spent most of the game watching their teammates battle it out in the middle of the field.
“There were a couple times the ball bounced in the box, and the same thing happened over on their end,” said Ankeny coach Simon Brown. “But I think it was always going to be a PK or something like that that would be the difference.”
As the clock ticked down under 40 seconds, Ankeny moved the ball into the attacking third. A shot attempt by the Hawkettes deflected off a Pleasant Valley defender.
The referee blew his whistle, calling a handball against the Spartans and awarding Ankeny a penalty kick.
Moments later, Christmann delivered the game-winner–finding the left side of the net.
“I think it was between me and Ken(nedy Macke), and she looked at me and was like, ‘Do you want to take it?'” Christmann said. “We’ve been practicing them in practice, and I just know what I do. I really didn’t feel any pressure.”
Brown said his team was due to catch a fortunate break.
“I told the girls, ‘We’ve just had so much bad luck all season,'” he said. “We lost to Pleasant Valley in overtime, and I said that eventually it’s got to come around. And now things have started to go our way. We’re scoring late goals, we’re keeping clean sheets, and we’re not scoring in the run of play. I think the luck just came our way that game.”
The Hawkettes will play No. 3 Waukee (15-3) in the semifinals on Wednesday at 3:15 p.m. It’ll be a rematch of the 2019 title game that was won by Ankeny, 1-0.
“It’s amazing. I’ve never been to state before. Being here is super cool,” Moser said. “We have a really great team. We’re all stacked, and we’re really ready to go. We’re going to take down Waukee.”
While the Warriors scored three first-half goals and cruised to a 3-0 win over Council Bluffs Lincoln on Tuesday, Ankeny was forced to play hard for the entire 80 minutes to advance. But Brown said he doesn’t think fatigue will be an issue.
“We’re playing in June in the semifinals, and you’re never going to get an easy team this time of the season,” he said. “We haven’t been top four all season, but we’re in the top four at the end of the season. You want to be winning games in June when everybody else is going home.”
