Lucas Newhard couldn’t have picked a better time to set the Ankeny school record for most goals in a season.
Newhard booted the ball into the net just 33 seconds into overtime and the top-ranked Ankeny boys’ soccer team defeated No. 4 Ankeny Centennial, 2-1, before a crowd of 3,800 on Tuesday at Ankeny Stadium.
“It feels amazing,” said Newhard. “I knew we could find the goal. It’s just about keeping our composure as a team, and that’s what we did.”
It was Newhard’s second goal of the game and his 29th of the season, which ranks second in the state. He broke the single-season school record of 28 goals, which was set by Armin Mujdzic in 2001.
“What a way to put it out in style,” Ankeny coach Marcus Varnum said of the record-breaking goal. “The message was: ‘Hey fellas, we got a little bit of the momentum. Let’s make sure that we take care of it early’, and that’s what they did. You get the foot on the ball, you start to move it around and find the space, and then you play the goal-scorer into space and he’s going to do what he does.”
The win allowed Ankeny to take over sole possession of first place in the CIML Iowa Conference. The Hawks improved to 4-0 in the league and 14-0 overall, while Centennial’s records dropped to 3-1 and 10-2.
The loss ended a nine-game winning streak for the Jaguars, who outshot Ankeny but were unable to capitalize on their chances.
“The atmosphere was electric. It was a really good soccer night, but we just came out on the wrong end,” said Centennial coach Brian Duax. “The game should have been over at halftime. We should have probably been up 4-0. But, like I told the guys, you squander chances against good teams, it’s going to come back and bite you. And it did.”
The game was scoreless at halftime, even though Centennial had numerous chances in the first 40 minutes. Ankeny goalkeeper Kyle Pederson maintained a clean sheet to keep his team in the game.
“I had to talk to my back line a little bit on the back post because they had Hecky (Andrew Heckenlaible) going down the line and dribbling everybody,” Pederson said. “I had to talk to them–we shut that down real quick.”
However, the Jaguars took a 1-0 lead in the 47th minute after putting a ton of pressure on Ankeny’s defense. Ty Duax put the ball away for his 10th goal of the season, assisted by Heckenlaible.
“It was unlucky, I guess you could say,” Pederson said. “We had two guys miss the ball. It was bouncing everywhere, and I couldn’t get to it.”
Centennial appeared to be in control until the 63rd minute, when the Hawks earned a corner kick. Newhard took it, and he blasted a shot that deflected off goalkeeper Andrew Nelson and into the net for the equalizer.
“Our team was down a little bit–we were struggling,” Newhard said. “But we still kept our composure, and I just tried to go for it for our team. See what happens, and it went in.”
The game remained tied at 1-1 through the end of regulation, but Varnum said he started to see a shift in momentum.
“It was a great game, and you’ve got to give it to the Jaguars,” he said. “They battled and they were a force to reckon with. But I’m super proud and super pumped for the boys. We battled. It was a long 80-minute game, and we knew that we were going to have to battle for the entire 80 minutes. Definitely, there were shifts in momentum. As we started to get our momentum, we really started to play our style–just ball movement, making sure that we’re moving for each other. And as the game goes on, we hope that the fatigue kicks in and I think we found a little bit of our groove.”
It didn’t take long in overtime for the Hawks to score the golden goal. Hunter Yeatts played a ball over the top to Newhard, who booted it past Nelson and into the net.
“We won the ball back with our defense, found Hunter in the midfield and I made a run through their center backs, and Hunter played me over the top, and I beat the keeper to it and put it in the back of the net,” Newhard said.
The Jaguars suffocated Newhard for most of the game, but the senior striker eventually found some space and took advantage of it.
“Andrew was waiting for (the ball) to get into the box, and it didn’t get into the box because Lucas closed it down and finished the chance,” Duax said. “We knew that that was a big strength of Lucas, and unfortunately he made us pay. He had two shots and two goals. That’s a clinical finisher.”
Centennial senior Evan Larson said he thought the Jaguars defended Newhard well.
“He’s a great player, and I have a lot of respect for him,” Larson said. “I’ve played with him for a lot of years, and it’s always fun to go up against him. It was a great game and a great experience for everyone–Pack the Pitch and everything. It was not the outcome we wanted, but we’ll keep going from here.”
The Hawks avenged last year’s 3-1 loss to Centennial. After the game, the Ankeny players celebrated with the pick-axe that is awarded to the winning team each year.
“It feels really good,” Pederson said. “We wanted it really bad this year. We’ve put all of our dedication into this game, and we just really wanted to come out with the win.”
Tuesday’s game showed that there isn’t much of a separation between the two teams.
“I think we can compete with anybody. I think we can beat anybody,” Duax said. “I just think we need to get a little bit more composed in front of the goal. The difference between a super striking goal-scoring machine like Lucas and our guys is he had two chances and two goals. We had 20 chances and one goal. But that’s soccer.”
The crosstown rivals could meet again at the state tournament. But Varnum said he wants no part of a rematch.
“They are a team that I don’t want to see again,” he said.
Both squads will be back in action on Friday with non-conference games. The Hawks will host No. 5 Johnston (12-1), while the Jaguars will travel to Des Moines East (7-5).
