The Ankeny Centennial boys’ soccer players proved a lot to themselves on Tuesday night.
The fourth-ranked Jaguars showed that they can defeat one of the state’s best teams while also overcoming some adverse conditions.
Playing on its home turf amid strong and gusty winds, Centennial went to a shootout against No. 2 Urbandale and eventually emerged with a 3-2 victory. The non-conference game ended when a penalty kick by Nathaniel Hersom, the J-Hawks’ goalkeeper, sailed over the crossbar.
“I’ve played in wind before, but not quite like this,” said Centennial goalkeeper Andrew Nelson, who had one of his four saves during the shootout. “We adapted, and we were able to get the win.”
The Jaguars (5-1) won the shootout by a 3-2 margin. Rashidi Ishibwami and Evan Larson both converted their kicks for Centennial before Andrew Heckenlaible then scored what proved to be the game-winner.
Rockne Carver and Hayden Marks converted their kicks for Urbandale. But the J-Hawks missed their opening kick, and Nelson later came up with a huge save on another attempt.
After converting his kick to break a 2-2 tie, Heckenlaible gave Nelson a few words of encouragement prior to Urbandale’s final attempt.
“I like having the pressure on me because I have nothing to lose, and the striker has everything to lose,” Nelson said. “So even if I mess up, there’s no pressure on me and there’s pressure on them. Nobody expects me to stop them from scoring.”
It was the first loss of the season for Urbandale (6-1). The J-Hawks had outscored their first six opponents by a 24-1 margin.
“It was a great win,” said Centennial coach Brian Duax. “It was a great way to find out the character of your team to battle adversity into that wind, going down and battling back.”
Neither team scored in the first half. Almost the entire 40 minutes was played on the north end of the field as Centennial benefited from the wind, but the Jaguars were unable to capitalize.
“This is ridiculous,” Duax said of the southerly wind. “This spring has been ridiculous. We need to try and get rid of this wind tunnel.”
Centennial took a 1-0 lead in the 50th minute when Ty Duax scored off a through ball by Quinn Geiger.
“It was a great pass,” Ty Duax said.
Urbandale tied it up less than 2 minutes later when a direct kick deflected off the post and into the air. Iranzi Ntakirutimana headed the ball into the net for his 10th goal of the season.
The J-Hawks took a 2-1 lead in the 67th minute when Carver scored on a blast from about 25 yards out. There wasn’t much that Nelson could do to stop the shot.
Centennial got the equalizer, though, after Ishibwami was fouled in the box in the 75th minute. Duax converted the ensuing penalty kick to force overtime.
“I’m always confident with my pens,” Duax said.
Duax now has four goals and a team-high six assists on the season. He would have been the final shooter in the shootout, but his attempt wasn’t necessary following Hersom’s miss.
“It was pretty amazing,” Ty Duax said of the wind. “The Johnston scrimmage was the closest thing to it for me. It was very challenging, but we got through it in the end.”
The Jaguars will play a non-conference game at Southeast Polk (1-3) on Friday.