It probably wasn’t realistic to think that the Ankeny Centennial girls’ soccer team could go the entire season without allowing a goal.
It turns out that an undefeated campaign was likely an unrealistic goal as well.
The top-ranked Jaguars suffered their first loss Tuesday on their home pitch, dropping a 3-2 decision to No. 7 Dowling Catholic in a shootout. The Maroons snapped Centennial’s 10-game winning streak dating back to last season.
“It would have been a tough loss for either team, so hat’s off to Dowling for putting up a great effort–jumping out on us and kind of punching us in the face,” said Centennial coach Chris Allen. “And hat’s off to our squad, because we responded and got back in the game. We had some chances to finish it out, and so did they. I think finishing the way it did in a tie was pretty appropriate. It just stinks that you have to settle it in PKs this early in the season.”
Dowling won the shootout by a 4-3 margin. The Jaguars missed their first and last kicks.
After the Maroons converted their first four attempts, Ella Anliker had a chance to seal the win for her team. But her kick was stopped by Centennial goalkeeper Kate Bergan.
That gave the Jaguars some brief hope, but then their final attempt deflected off the crossbar.
“I think early in the season you’re a little worn out at the end of a game,” Allen said. “A lot of our PKs last year came at the end of the season when we were in good form. So we’ll clean those up, and there’s some technique things we can work on.”
It was the CIML Conference opener for Dowling, which improved to 2-0 overall. The Maroons have now defeated two of the three No. 1 teams in Iowa after posting a 2-0 win at Class 2A Dallas Center-Grimes on Thursday.
Centennial dropped to 1-1 in the conference and 4-1 overall. The Jaguars had outscored their first four opponents by a 22-0 margin.
“We were exhausted. We were cramping up at the end of the game,” Allen said. “But the girls fought. They easily could have hung their heads after Dowling came out and got another goal in the second half, but they didn’t. They responded.”
The Maroons got a pair of goals from Anliker to build a 2-0 lead. She blasted a shot past Bergan from about 35 yards out in the 31st minute.
As soon as Ankliker took her shot, Centennial assistant coach Peter Rameh knew that it looked good. “That’s going to go in,” he said from the sideline.
Anliker then scored again about 6 minutes into the second half.
“She’s fantastic,” Allen said. “She likes to pop up in different places throughout the midfield. They kind of start her sitting back, and then all of the sudden she’s out on the wing creating opportunities. She can whip a ball in with just a little bit of space. She’s a special player.”
The Jaguars got on the board in the 58th minute when Averi Porter got behind the defense and found the net. She was assisted by Alanna Pennington.
Pennington then scored the equalizer in the 71st minute. She blasted a rocket from about 30 yards out for her fifth goal of the season.
A few minutes later, Porter left the game with a right knee injury. She did not return.
“I hope she’ll be ok,” Allen said. “She went down, but we kept fighting. You’re kind of relying on her to be out there, but we had some other players step up. Things just didn’t go our way at the end.”
The Jaguars will host another conference game against No. 4 Valley (3-1) on Friday. The Tigers dropped a 3-0 decision to No. 3 Waukee Northwest on Tuesday.