(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
Between late heroics to a trio of first-half goals, the Ankeny Centennial girls’ soccer team came out of the Crosstown Invitational with two quality wins over ranked opponents and a very positive trajectory for the season.
The fifth-ranked Jaguars not only avenged a loss in last year’s Crosstown Invite in Friday night’s 1-0 shutout over Class 3A No. 7 Pleasant Valley, but they produced a 3-0 clean sheet over three-time defending Class 2A champion and No. 2-ranked Dallas Center-Grimes on Saturday.
“That was the whole goal of putting the Crosstown Invite together,” said Centennial coach Chris Allen. “Invite teams out that really wanted to test themselves early in the season. We’ve taken our knocks in this in the past, so to come out 2-0 after a couple years where we split games, it’s something to be proud of.”
Just last season the Jaguars suffered one of their seven losses during the Crosstown Invitational after dropping a 3-2 contest against Pleasant Valley.
Although Friday night proved to be the closest game out of three early season matchups, the Jaguars were able to avenge that loss to open up the invitational.
Centennial dominated possession of the ball for most of the game, but just couldn’t find a way to break through for a goal.
There were a couple of chances the Jaguars had that just came up a little bit short.
In the 22nd minute, senior captain Maddison Balashaitis controlled a corner kick from fellow captain Olivia Kroska and had her point-blank shot saved. Junior Evie Boyle had a free kick just outside the box sail just high of the top right corner of the goal in the 62nd minute.
But sometimes it’s just as simple as looking to one of your stars to make a play.
In the 74th minute, returning all-state selection Ava Martin controlled the ball and weaved her way through four different defenders before rocketing a shot past the keeper for the game-winning goal.
While Martin’s goal came with just over 6 minutes left to play against the Spartans, the Jaguars didn’t waste much time with Dallas Center-Grimes as they netted all three goals in the first 40 minutes of play.
It all started with a corner kick in the 17th minute.
Boyle took the corner kick and placed the ball in a perfect spot for a header between two defenders from junior Emmarie Becker, who beat the keeper for the first of her two-goal day.
“It was a great corner from Evie and once it was served, I could tell it was going to go back post,” Becker said. “I made my run and I found it in the air and was able to put it in the back of the net.”
But before the Mustangs had a chance to settle back down, a goal kick into the wind rolled directly to the feet of Adeline Kroska and the freshman only had to take a couple of steps before rifling a shot off the crossbar and down into the goal.
Kroska’s second goal of the season came just 48 seconds after Becker gave Centennial the initial 1-0 lead.
In the 36th minute, senior Addison Fair looked like she was going to have an opportunity to extend the lead, but got tripped just after entering the box. Becker took over for the ensuing penalty kick and found the back of the net for her second goal and a 3-0 Jaguar lead.
Centennial returned 13 players from the 2024 team that qualified for the state tournament for the ninth time in the 10-year history of the program.
One area that’s greatly benefitted from having plenty of experience returning to the pitch has been on the defensive side.
The Jags’ back line, along with sophomore goalkeeper Rylee Litchfield, has yet to concede a goal this season and a big part of that is allowing very few scoring opportunities for opposing teams.
“Our back line is really connected, Rylee is doing really well this year keeping us all together, and we’re getting forward and putting balls into the box,” said Boyle, one of the key pieces to the back line.
“We’re seeing a lot of experience paying off (defensively),” Allen added. “Even the freshman that plays in that back line has a deep experience playing soccer. So the clean sheets are a testament to getting experience together and it paying off.”
Centennial is looking to continue building off its early season successes as the Jaguars kick off conference play on Tuesday with a big opportunity to get a win over the team that ended their season last year.
Waukee Northwest knocked Centennial out in a 3-2 shootout during the Class 3A quarterfinal round. The current No. 6 Wolves were among the teams playing in the Crosstown Invitational to open their season.
The Wolves also posted a shutout over DC-G with a 1-0 victory on Friday before taking to the pitch for a 2-0 victory over No. 8 Linn-Mar (Marion) directly after Centennial’s win over the Mustangs.