Emma Gott and the Ankeny girls’ soccer team didn’t dwell on Friday’s loss to Dallas Center-Grimes.
The Hawkettes didn’t have time to do so.
Gott recorded a hat trick and fourth-ranked Ankeny evened its record at 1-1 with a 4-0 victory over visiting Ames in the Crosstown Invitational on Saturday.
“Our bodies were tired, but we came out wanting to fight,” said Gott.
Gott scored her first goal in the opening half to give Ankeny a 1-0 lead at the break. She then added two more goals in the second half before teammate Alli Macke scored the final goal.
“We started off a little bit slow against the wind, but we really pulled it together in the second half and just got some momentum going,” said Macke, who also had two assists. “It was a great game to get our confidence back.”
Gott’s second goal came on a penalty kick. Ankeny coach Simon Brown called for her to take the kick even though she had missed a penalty kick to end Friday’s game.
“I’m really proud of Emma,” said Brown. “After Friday, I think she took a lot of the burden with the loss because she missed the last kick. But there were so many different scenarios that could have happened earlier in that game so that she wouldn’t have been in that position. She was upset and felt like she let the team down, but I trust her and she wouldn’t be a captain of this team if I didn’t. So it was great for her to get that penalty (against Ames) and also get a hat trick. She really put the team on her shoulders.”
On Friday, the Hawkettes dropped a 3-2 decision to No. 1 Dallas Center-Grimes in a marathon shootout that needed 14 penalty kicks to decide the outcome. The Mustangs eventually prevailed by a 13-12 margin when Gott’s kick went just wide of the left post.
“I know I’m going to sound salty, but if ever there was an advertisement for the game to end in a tie, it was Friday’s game,” Brown said. “They didn’t deserve to lose, and we didn’t either. We came out on the wrong end of it, but we know we put out a good performance against a top team.”
Both sides made their first nine penalty kicks. The game nearly ended on Ankeny’s ninth attempt, when Avery Taylor hit the crossbar on her first-ever penalty kick.
However, as the Dallas Center-Grimes players charged onto the field, the ball came back down and hit the turf, then spun backwards into the goal to keep the shootout going.
“It was a bit of a circus,” Brown said. “The referee blew his whistle while the ball was in the air, which you’re not supposed to do. But it bounced back in.”
The video of Taylor’s kick went viral on social media.
“Everyone is joking about it now,” Brown said.
Ankeny jumped out to a 2-0 lead before Dallas Center-Grimes, the two-time defending Class 2A state champion, battled back. Sydney Van Houweling scored off an assist by Sophia Kephart at the 4:01 mark, then Ava Paoli added another goal off a throw-in pass from Gott in the 13th minute.
The Mustangs (2-0) got on the board when Kylie Knief scored on a free kick from about 25 yards out at the 41:42 mark. Alexa Gill scored the tying goal off another free kick with less than 7 minutes left to go in regulation.
“We dominated the first half,” Brown said. “It was just unfortunate we let them back into the game. They scored on two set pieces, but we knew they were good at that.”
The Hawkettes will play a non-conference game at Cedar Falls (0-0) on Tuesday.