It took awhile for the Ankeny Centennial girls’ soccer team to figure out its opponent on a chilly Monday night.
After scoring just one goal in the first half, the fourth-ranked Jaguars added four more in the second half to defeat visiting Southeast Polk, 5-0, in a non-conference game.
“All in all, it was an awesome team effort,” said Centennial coach Chris Allen. “It was a fun game that gave us glimpses of the soccer we are capable of after getting away from our style for a few games.”
Alanna Pennington scored two goals as Centennial improved its record to 5-2. The Rams dropped to 0-6.
The Jaguars went scoreless for nearly 20 minutes before Pennington found the net off an assist by Ella Hudachek.
“With Southeast Polk, we planned to face a high backline that might frustrate us with an offside trap, and that backline is what we saw,” Allen said. “We had a few strategies to get in behind it, but we still were called offside quite a few times. In fact, we had a beautiful team goal called back about 3 minutes in. The good news was that in the face of this challenge, we kept our composure and stayed supportive.
“The girls kept battling for chances and after controlling much of the game, Ella served a second great ball to Alanna, who tucked it away,” he added.
After going against a strong wind in the first half, the Jaguars were hoping to benefit from the wind in the second half. But then the wind died down.
“When we regrouped in the locker room, we talked about how the wind was not going to give us much of an advantage, but that we needed to continue to play our game–protecting the ball, looking for chances forward, and being relentless in our efforts to win it back,” Allen said. “We also talked about not giving up on one another. That we needed to continue to make runs and continue to work together in the 18. We felt like we were just a little off on some runs and the angles of our passes.”
Centennial quickly scored two goals to build a commanding 3-0 lead. Averi Porter finished a cross from Ava Martin, then Porter earned a penalty kick on a great pass from Courtney Kovacs, which Pennington converted.
Later in the half, the Jaguars extended their advantage to 4-0 on a breakaway opportunity by Cady Compton.
“It might qualify as an own goal, but Cady created the chance,” Allen said.
Compton eventually found the net to complete the scoring. She connected off an assist from Avery Lewis.
“It was Avery’s birthday, and she took the end line and found Cady in front of the goal mouth,” Allen said.
Centennial posted its fifth shutout of the season. Goalkeepers Kate Bergan and Teagan Hall combined for four saves.
The Jaguars will play a CIML Iowa Conference game at Mason City (3-1) on Friday.
