The Ankeny boys’ soccer team already had three games under its belt prior to Tuesday’s CIML Conference opener against Waukee.
The Warriors didn’t have that luxury.
It was the season opener for Waukee, and it turned out to be a rough one for the visitors.
The Hawks dominated the run of play and rolled to a 3-0 victory on another cold night.
“It was by far our most complete performance this season,” said Ankeny coach Trevor Fuccio, whose team improved to 3-1 overall.
Ankeny held a 1-0 lead at halftime. The Hawks broke a scoreless tie when Cal Wahlberg found the net off an assist by Andrew Loder in the 24th minute.
Ankeny had other chances to score, but could not capitalize.
“We gave up one shot on target in the first half, so it was hard to complain about that,” Fuccio said. “I just felt like we were a little wasteful (with our chances) so we put a big emphasis on continuing to try to create opportunities. We were hoping we could do that and finish our chances, and we were able to do that pretty early in the second half. It was good to see.”
Landon Benge scored a goal off an assist by Wahlberg about 5 minutes into the second half. Austin Lundberg later added another goal on a penalty kick to produce the final margin.
Meanwhile, the Hawks’ defense continued to dominate. Ankeny goalkeeper Jackson Dockendorff made just two saves in the win.
“I was really happy with the performance by the guys as a whole,” Fuccio said.
Ankeny will host a non-conference game against Davenport North (1-0) on Saturday. The Hawks will then travel to Johnston (3-0) on Monday for a conference game against the defending Class 4A state champions.
The Dragons posted a 2-0 win over Ankeny in last year’s substate semifinal.
“All the boys have Monday on their minds. They’ve had that game circled for awhile,” Fuccio said. “But we can’t overlook Saturday’s game.”
