The latest victory for the Ankeny Centennial boys’ soccer team even impressed some former Jaguars.
“With it being Easter weekend, we had a ton of alumni back in town and a lot of them were like, ‘You guys can actually play. You guys are stringing some passes together and doing some things that are really good,'” Centennial coach Brian Duax said after his team defeated visiting Urbandale, 2-0, on Friday. “I think tonight was the most complete game we’ve played so far. I don’t think (goalkeeper Will) Kreuger had to make any super difficult saves.”
The Jaguars extended their winning streak to four games while posting their second shutout of the season. They improved to 2-1 in the CIML Conference and 5-2 overall, while Urbandale’s records dropped to 2-2 and 3-2-1.
Centennial has already matched its victory total from last year, when it finished 5-12.
“When we played our game, we were in complete control,” Duax said. “It’s another building block to what we are trying to accomplish.”
The Jaguars took a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute when junior Mason Goble scored the first varsity goal of his career. He was assisted by Brock Brazeau.
“Our plan of attack was to swing the ball from side to side,” Duax said. “The ball started on Tate (Duax)’s side. Tate cut in, played a big ball over to Brock, Brock took a couple of touches, and then played another big ball to the opposite side where Mason finished. It was really a thing of beauty.”
With about 10 minutes left in the game, Brazeau scored an insurance goal off a corner kick by Duax. The assist went to Lucas De La Cuba, who headed the ball to Brazeau.
“We dominated in terms of possession and shots on goal,” Duax said. “Urbandale was very counter attack-minded, and they defended very well. They were really only dangerous on set pieces or counter attacks.”
Junior Ben Ridlen returned to Centennial’s lineup after missing the last three games. He was a vital part of the Jaguars’ game plan.
“We always try to accentuate our strengths while going after our opponents’ weaknesses. Every game plan is different,” Duax said. “For this game, we wanted to build our possessions from the back, and Ben is really good at that. That meant that Caleb (Murray) didn’t get as many minutes as he would have wanted, but he was good with that. The little things like that are what will take this team a long ways. Caleb is the guy that will do all the dirty work for us all the time that gets very little praise.”
Centennial will play a conference game at Dowling Catholic on Tuesday. The Maroons are 1-2 in the league and 3-2 overall.