It took awhile for Ankeny Centennial’s dominance to produce some goals in Monday’s girls’ soccer season opener at Iowa City West.
After going scoreless in the first half, the Jaguars racked up three goals in the final 40 minutes to post a 3-0 victory in the non-conference game.
“We missed some good chances in the first half, but the girls understand why we were missing them and we can clean that up in practice,” said Centennial coach Chris Allen. “In the second half we challenged them to come out and be really threatening, and we got that first goal less than 5 minutes in.”
Freshman Adeline Kroska got Centennial on the board with a goal in the 44th minute, the first of her career. She was assisted by Ava Martin.
“Scoring the first goal brought a new energy to the field,” said Kroska. “It was fun to score the first goal. First goal, first game, it was cool. We had been talking about making runs into the box, and I just tried to get into the box and make those back post runs and it just happened that the ball made it in, and I was there.”
The Jaguars increased their lead to 2-0 midway through the second half. Martin scored off an assist by Emily Conger in the 61st minute.
Then, in the 74th minute, Conger added another goal when she followed in a shot by Mady Postma.
“Iowa City West was really well organized behind the ball, and we kept trying to go deeper and deeper into their 18,” Allen said. “Some of the opportunities were sitting a little further out from the 18.”
Centennial possessed the ball more than 61 percent of the time. The Jaguars outshot Iowa City West by a 36-3 margin and had a 28-3 edge in crosses.
“There were very few times when they crossed midfield,” Allen said of the Trojans. “When they tried to go long on us, Emmarie Becker was just owning the midfield.”
Defender Maddison Balashaitis said the Jaguars learned some things from Saturday’s scrimmage against North Polk.
“We had good cohesive play,” Balashaitis said. “We fixed our mistakes from (the scrimmage), focused in, and got the small details right.”
Monday’s game marked the return of senior captain Olivia Kroska to the Jaguars’ lineup. Kroska, who tore her ACL more than a year ago, entered the game about 15 minutes into the first half and nearly found the goal about a minute later.
“She had a shot that bounced off the crossbar,” Allen said. “That would have been a huge confidence builder for her, but nonetheless she was able to come in and impact the game immediately.”