The Ankeny Centennial girls’ soccer team was ready for Mason City’s defensive strategy.
The fourth-ranked Jaguars scored six goals in the first half and went on to post a 9-0 road victory in a CIML Iowa Conference game on Friday.
“We expected to see a high back line with numbers behind the ball–up to six players in the defensive line,” said Centennial coach Chris Allen. “And this is what we faced early. We have had a few games to assess this high line and work on ways to break it down.
“The girls have really bought into our game study, we were able to work a few patterns from training into our play, and despite the numbers in the defensive line and the narrow football field width of Mason City’s pitch, we were able to slip the ball in behind the defense to runners. McKenna Hilton’s goal in the first 10 minutes came off of Alanna Pennington finding Averi Porter in behind.
“Courtney Kovacs found Averi for a similar goal moments after,” Allen added.
Porter eventually finished with two goals, while Ava Martin had two assists. Ella Becker and Avery Lewis each had a goal and an assist.
Other goals were scored by Pennington, Gabby Lawrence and Cady Compton.
The Jaguars improved to 2-0 in the conference and 6-2 overall. All six of their wins have been shutouts.
Mason City’s records dropped to 0-3 and 5-3. The team has been outscored, 22-0, in its three league losses.
“It was another solid team effort with Kate Bergan (20 minutes) and Teagan Hall (60 minutes) combining for the clean sheet,” Allen said. “The team continues to ascend in my opinion, and that is a huge positive. Concepts we work on in practice are playing out in games.”
Allen said his players met all of their process goals for the game.
“Winning loose balls, connecting almost 80 percent of our passes (out of nearly 400 attempts), and keeping possession for the majority of the game,” he said. “Those are keys to our identity as a team, and we want to keep striving for improvement in those areas.”
Hall had the lone save for Centennial. Mason City goalkeeper Analeah Swegle racked up 18 saves in the loss.
“I credit Mason City for continuing to try to develop their game against us,” Allen said. “They tried to build out of the back, and their keeper made some strong saves to extend the game the full 80 minutes.”
The Jaguars will play an Iowa Conference game at Fort Dodge (0-1) on Tuesday.