This wasn’t the way that the Ankeny Centennial girls’ soccer players wanted their Senior Night to go.
The seventh-ranked Jaguars finished the regular season on Tuesday with a 1-0 loss to visiting Cedar Falls in a non-conference game. The Tigers were outshot by a 16-2 margin, but they scored the game-winner when Zoe Zylstra found the net in the second half for her 13th goal of the season.
“We probably got a little too anxious to get forward to get a goal and left ourselves exposed,” said Centennial coach Chris Allen. “It was essentially a 60-yard dribble, and (Zylstra) tucked it away.”
Cedar Falls improved to 10-5 on the season. The Jaguars’ record dropped to 11-6.
The Tigers’ win was eerily similar to their 1-0 victory over Ankeny a month ago, when the Hawkettes lost despite outshooting Cedar Falls by a 30-1 margin.
“This was probably a mirror image of that game, although we gave up a breakaway and Ankeny gave up a free kick,” Allen said. “We spent most of the game in their half (of the field).”
Centennial possessed the ball for more than 60 percent of the game. The Jaguars had eight corner kicks, while Cedar Falls had just one.
“We took quite a few shots from distance, which I was hoping we wouldn’t,” Allen said. “They were really good at what they were wanting to do. They were clogging the middle. We either tried to force it through there or were taking shots from quite a (distance).”
After a scoreless first half, Allen said he warned his players that one mistake could be costly.
“We talked at halftime about how we can have one lapse and go down (to defeat),” he said. “The Waukee (loss) would be one example, and Pleasant Valley would be another. Hopefully, it doesn’t become a part of our identity, because we can’t really afford it at this point in the season.”
The Jaguars were coming off a 1-0 victory at No. 4 Valley in a shootout on Monday. The back-to-back games may have taken a toll.
“We were probably playing that game on really tired legs,” Allen said. “There were moments where we weren’t getting a lot behind our shots. It’s just been a rough stretch, and I also have to look at what I didn’t do to have us prepared.”
Centennial will host Cedar Rapids Jefferson (5-10) or Waterloo West (3-13) in a Class 3A regional semifinal on Tuesday.