In its first six games, the Ankeny girls’ soccer team has found a winning formula.
Don’t give up any goals. Find the net at least one time. Celebrate a victory.
“If we’re not conceding goals, we only have to score one and then we’re winning games,” said Ankeny coach Simon Brown.
The second-ranked Hawkettes improved to 6-0 by defeating No. 5 Dowling Catholic, 2-0, in a non-conference game on Monday at Ankeny. The win avenged last year’s loss to the Maroons, whose record dropped to 2-1.
Ankeny has yet to allow a goal this season.
“Our girls in the back work tremendously hard,” said Brown, whose team got four saves from goalkeeper Jasmine Moser. “Dowling has one of the best attacking players in the state with Ella (Anliker) up top so we knew we had to figure out ways to shut her down. We wanted to limit her chances as much as possible, and we were able to do that.”
At the other end of the field, Ankeny needed just 73 seconds to take the lead for good. A shot by Brooke Harrington hit the right post, but Emma Gott pounced on the rebound and scored her seventh goal in the last three games.
“It was great to come out firing like that,” Brown said. “It took a lot of the pressure off. I think we created a lot of chances into that wind in the first half. We just couldn’t get a second goal.”
Eventually, the Hawkettes increased their lead in the second half when Harrington headed the ball to the back post off a corner kick by Avery Matthews. It was her fifth goal of the season.
“It was a good game,” Brown said. “This is probably the best the girls have played. They knew that Dowling was a good team, and we had a good week of practice to get ready for this game. The girls came out ready to play with the early goal.”
The Hawkettes will travel to Marshalltown on Tuesday for a CIML Iowa Conference game. The Bobcats (0-6) have scored only one goal all season, so it seems unlikely that they will find much success against Ankeny’s stingy defense.
Can the shutout streak continue…perhaps for the entire season?
“That’s crazy talk,” Brown said. “The only thing we’re focused on is Marshalltown (on Tuesday). We can’t be thinking about the rest of the season. We have to keep ourselves grounded. Nobody is giving out any banners or trophies in April, so we just have to worry about our next game.”
