‘We were very dangerous’: Hawks get hat trick from Benge in 4-3 loss to Dowling

Ankeny’s Landon Benge watches his shot go into the net for one of his three goals during Friday’s game against visiting Dowling Catholic at Ankeny Stadium. Despite Benge’s hat trick, the Hawks opened the season with a 4-3 loss to their CIML Conference rival. (Photo by Evan Reiter)

In a rematch from last year’s state tournament, the Ankeny boys’ soccer team opened its season on Friday with a 4-3 loss to visiting Dowling Catholic at Ankeny Stadium.

Landon Benge had a hat trick for the Hawks, but it wasn’t enough as Dowling won the CIML Conference game and improved to 2-0 overall. The Maroons also defeated Ankeny, 3-2, in last year’s Class 4A quarterfinals.

“We played well for 60-65 minutes and just had some mental lapses in the back,” said Ankeny coach Trevor Fuccio. “I felt like overall we were the better team. We outshot and out-possessed Dowling. There are lots of overall positives to take away from it, but it’s a very disappointing result as all the goals were avoidable if we had stuck to the game plan.”

**Ankeny’s Cal Wahlberg takes a corner kick during Friday’s game. Wahlberg had a pair of assists for the Hawks. (Photo by Evan Reiter)**

Ankeny’s Cal Wahlberg contributed a pair of assists. Brian Jimenez added another one.

Dowling goalkeeper Ryan Kuhn made seven saves.

“We were very dangerous going forward, and it’s nice to see us creating a ton of opportunities,” Fuccio said.

The Maroons held a 2-1 lead at halftime. Each team then scored twice in the final 40 minutes.

**Ankeny’s Brandon Thaut battles for the ball during Friday’s game. (Photo by Evan Reiter)**

Jonathan Mendez had two goals and an assist for Dowling. Josiah Crowder added a goal and an assist.

Ankeny goalkeeper Jackson Dockendorff had one save.

“We will need to learn from our mistakes, and we must learn quickly as we have another tough CIML matchup on Tuesday (at Valley),” Fuccio said.