The scoring drought continues for the Ankeny girls’ soccer team.
The fourth-ranked Hawkettes hosted No. 5 Waukee on Friday and dominated much of the game, but had to settle for a 0-0 tie. It was the second scoreless draw in the last three games for coach Simon Brown’s team, which has not scored a regular goal in its last four contests.
“Waukee set up defensively, and we moved a lot of things around to try to generate a little bit more offense,” said Brown. “I think we did create more with the ball and off the ball, and we had more chances. We’re just struggling to find the goal right now. It’s something we have to figure out.”
The Warriors attempted just six shots, three of them on goal. Meanwhile, Waukee goalkeeper Lauren Nidey made 11 saves to keep her team in the game.
“With this new rule, it allows teams to play a bit different styles,” said Ankeny senior Alli Macke. “At the end of the game specifically, we were pushing for a goal and Waukee dropped a ton of numbers behind the ball to play for a tie. It is easy to be frustrated at the results we’ve gotten the last three games and not scoring a ton of goals right now, but I think as a whole we are really happy with how we played tonight.
“We lived up to our identity as a team, creating lots of chances and being excellent out of possession to win the ball back and not allowing Waukee to get any dangerous looks,” she added.
The Hawkettes are now 0-1-2 in the CIML Conference and 3-1-2 overall. It was the league opener for Waukee, which is now 2-0-2 on the season.
“They were more concerned with stopping us than creating,” Brown said of the Warriors. “We’re not frustrated, but we are hungry to win. For whatever reason, the ball is just not falling for us. We just need a little better luck in front of the goal.”
Ankeny will travel to Johnston on Tuesday for a conference game against the No. 11 Dragons, who are 1-1 in the league and 3-1-2 overall. They are coming off a 3-1 loss at No. 1 Waukee Northwest on Friday.
“We’ve played three top-five teams and four top-seven teams,” Brown said. “We’ve played the toughest schedule thus far in the first six games. We’ve played all the top teams in the CIML except for Waukee Northwest, and we know we’re right there. We know we can compete at a high level.”
