(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
The victories in the Ankeny and Ankeny Centennial boys’ soccer rivalry tend to alternate every year, and Monday night continued the tradition.
Centennial’s junior tandem of Tate Duax and Brock Brazeau linked up for a pair of goals in the span of 3 minutes during the first half. Ankeny cut the lead down off the foot of star Landon Benge, but the Hawks’ second-half rally fell short as the Jaguars clinched a 2-1 victory in the Ankeny Derby.
“It’s always good to win the rivalry game,” said Centennial coach Brian Duax. “Trevor (Fuccio) has done good with that group. Their seniors and the whole team played with heart, and they made some adjustments in the second half that made it an uncomfortable win–but a win nonetheless.”
“I thought the intensity was there for Centennial tonight,” added Fuccio, Ankeny’s second-year coach. “I thought it was a tale of two halves for us. Came out very flat in the first half and played well in the second half, but obviously too late when you give up two in the first half and don’t adjust quick enough.”
The Hawks previously won back in 2019 and the Jaguars responded with a victory in 2021 following the cancelled 2020 season. From there, Ankeny posted wins during the 2022 and 2024 seasons, while Centennial earned wins in 2023 and now 2025.
Two goals in the first 40 minutes of play is what ultimately helped the Jaguars raise their records to 1-1 in the CIML Conference and 4-2 overall.
In the 30th minute, Duax lined up for a corner kick and found Brazeau in front of the goal. Brazeau’s header deflected off the gloves of Ankeny goalkeeper Jackson Dockendorff and into the net for his first goal of the season.
“That was pretty exciting because I missed a penalty against Council Bluffs Lewis Central (on Friday),” Brazeau said. “I wasn’t really proud of that, and it put me down a little bit. Scoring that goal and celebrating with my teammates felt good.”
The Centennial tandem struck again just 3 minutes later–this time with the roles reversed.
Brazeau crossed the ball in during the 33rd minute and found Duax behind two defenders. The initial shot by Duax was saved by Dockendorff, but a rebound landed right back at the feet of Duax, who then netted his eighth goal of the season in just six games.
“The plan was for Tate and Brock to play wide and as soon as (senior defender) Dylan Gloviak–who’s a monster for Ankeny–slides over, just play the other one and it worked,” Duax said.
Despite a 2-0 deficit at halftime, the Hawks came out in the second half looking to even things up.
Centennial put an emphasis on trying to slow down Ankeny’s leading scorer in Benge, but it was only a matter of time before the senior forward was able to strike for the Hawks.
Benge ruined Centennial’s clean sheet midway through the second half in the 60th minute. Junior Cal Wahlberg was able to find Benge, who managed to split a pair of defenders and score his seventh goal of the season in five games.
“He is inevitable,” said Duax. “That’s what I like to call Landon Benge. You take four seconds off and he’ll punish you, and that’s exactly what he did tonight. We did good for 79 minutes and 54 seconds, but 4 to 6 seconds in space and he punishes you.”
One natural factor that had an impact on both squads was the near 20 mile per hour winds blowing to the southeast and in most cases, both teams found much more success playing into the wind rather than having it at their backs.
In the first half, Ankeny struggled with a couple of offsides calls and couldn’t connect on passes to Benge down the field without the ball being sent too long, which allowed Centennial goalkeeper Will Kreuger to give possession right back to the Jaguars.
Centennial was able to play how it wanted to in the first half, and it resulted in a two-goal margin at the break. Once the roles reversed, Ankeny was able to play more of its style and had a second-half effort that put it in a spot to tie the game.
“With the winds, it was kind of harder to judge the ball,” said Centennial junior Mace Nithang. “So we had to make sure we had cover to support unders because Landon is very fast, and we don’t want to get into any foot races with him. It was just important to communicate and have coverage when we went for a header.”
For the Hawks, the loss snapped a two-game winning streak that consisted of victories over Indianola and Davenport North on back-to-back days. They fell to 0-3 in the conference and 2-3 overall.
One of the big things moving forward for Ankeny is piecing together first and second halves that resemble more of what the Hawks saw in the last 40 minutes against Centennial.
“We’ve just got to get away from the half performances,” Fuccio said. “It was nice to end that week with two wins, especially when it’s two games within 24 hours. But we just haven’t had complete performances yet, and that’s just something that’s going to lead into games where we’re trailing and trying to get back into it in the end. We’ve just got to move past this one and just get focused for the weekend.”
The Jaguars, meanwhile, are now riding a three-game winning streak that began with wins over Lewis Central and Omaha (Neb.) Skutt Catholic last weekend.
Centennial feels it has a lot more to prove after a 2024 season that saw the Jaguars finish 5-12 overall.
“It’s a big win for the team, especially after having a big losing season last year,” said Tate Duax. “We had a rough start losing to (Iowa City) West, but now we’ve turned it around and hope to keep on trucking. We’re on a hot streak right now.”
Both squads will move on with big matches ahead on the schedule.
Centennial will host a conference game against Urbandale (3-0-1) on Friday. Ankeny will compete in the Valley Invitational with games against Linn-Mar (Marion) (2-2) on Friday and Ames (5-0) on Saturday.
