The game of soccer doesn’t always reward the better team.
It’s a cruel reality that was endured by the Ankeny girls’ squad on Thursday afternoon at Cownie Park.
Despite dominating most of the contest, the third-ranked Hawkettes dropped a 2-1 decision to No. 7 Bettendorf in the Class 3A semifinals of the state tournament. The Bulldogs (17-3) advanced to Saturday’s championship game against No. 5 Valley (17-3).
“We had the chances to win the game. We had so many chances,” said Ankeny coach Simon Brown, whose team finished the season at 14-5. “They probably had two or three chances, and they scored a couple (of goals). The way it happened was a bit harsh, but that’s life. It doesn’t care if you’re the better team and you’ve got the better players and the better chances.”
Ankeny’s Alli Macke nearly put her team ahead on a free kick in the 75th minute. Her blast from just outside the box deflected off the top of the right post.
“It was close,” said Macke, who had scored an equalizer for the Hawkettes about 6 minutes earlier. “It just didn’t go in, and sometimes that’s the way the cards fall.”
On the rebound, Ankeny’s Camryn Dietz collided with Bettendorf’s Kelsi Smith in a battle for the ball. Peyton Markham then started a counter attack for the Bulldogs with a pass up the left side of the field.
Bettendorf eventually got the ball to Carson Bohonek, who entered the game with 43 goals. She then set up Kailin Stiles-Pena for the winning goal with 4 minutes 47 seconds left.
“We were just inches away from winning the game, and then they go down to the other end and score,” Brown said. “It’s a horrible feeling.”
Ankeny appeared to have all the momentum following Macke’s goal. And then, in a matter of seconds, it was gone.
“We had a lot of momentum once we scored that equalizer,” Macke said. “I thought we had good momentum to get another one, but they ended up getting a good counter attack on us.”
Brown said his team didn’t want to go to overtime. Three of the Hawkettes’ four previous losses came in penalty kicks.
“We were pushing to win the game,” he said. “We never think about how we’re going to lose it. They were more defensive-minded with a lot of girls behind the ball, and they can do that when they have a couple of average players on the team and two difference-makers in Carson and then Peyton in the middle. Those are probably the only two kids that would play a big role on our team, but they won the game. Credit to them. It helps when you have a superstar up top that draws so much attention. (Bohonek) wasn’t the one who scored, but she had the assist there at the end.”
Bettendorf took an early 1-0 lead when Alma Gonzalez-Hayes scored off a corner kick in the 15th minute. The Bulldogs capitalized when Ankeny was unable to clear the ball.
“We made a mistake, and it was just an unfortunate play,” Brown said. “It was a bad time to concede something like that. And then we probably had 15 or 20 corner kicks where the ball didn’t bounce for us and go in.”
Ankeny had some chances to tie it up in the first half. Bettendorf goalkeeper Riley Sweetland made a diving stop of a shot by Macke in the 24th minute.
A foul on the Bulldogs led to a free kick just outside the box by Dietz in the final seconds of the half. She blasted the ball over Bettendorf’s wall, but Bohonek stepped in front of Sweetland and headed it out of bounds as time expired.
The Hawkettes continued to attack in the second half. A shot by Emma Gott in the 59th minute went just over the crossbar.
Ankeny finally got the equalizer at the 68:52 mark. Bettendorf’s Destiny Borland tried to clear a throw-in pass from Gott, but the ball deflected off of teammate Alivia Snow and Macke was there to clean up the mess, tapping the ball past Sweetland and into the left side of the net for her team-leading 15th goal of the season.
“I’m proud of the girls,” Brown said. “We did everything we were supposed to do. We dominated the game.”
Just a few minutes later, Macke’s free kick nearly won the game for the Hawkettes. But it wasn’t meant to be.
“It’s just unfortunate the way that it fell,” Macke said. “They had one at the end that ended up going in. We just had a lot of chances that unluckily didn’t go in.”
It was the final game for Ankeny’s trio of seniors in Gott, Liz Proctor and Taevah Ganahi.
“I’m really proud of Emma, Liz and Taevah–and everything they’ve done for the program,” Brown said. “(Assistant coach) Trevor (Neary) and I just loved coaching those kids.”
Proctor was part of the Hawkettes’ defensive unit that held Bohonek without a goal.
“Carson is tough to handle, but she was really quiet for most of the game,” Brown said. “I don’t think there’s been many games where she hasn’t scored. That’s a credit to our girls in the back.”
Ankeny will return the bulk of its starting lineup next year, led by Macke–the future Iowa Hawkeye.
“This is a great team. This is a family, and I’m super proud of all the work we put in,” Macke said. “This team will feel a lot of pain the next couple of days because of the big goals that we did have, but I’m super proud of this team.”
