Perhaps the Pleasant Valley boys’ soccer team deserves to be ranked.
The Spartans came to Ankeny this weekend and knocked off a pair of ranked opponents in a span of 18 hours. After posting a 3-0 win at No. 10 Ankeny Centennial on Friday night, they followed it up on Saturday morning with a 1-0 win over No. 7 Ankeny at Ankeny Stadium.
The Hawks, who were coming off a 4-1 triumph over visiting Southeast Polk on Friday, were held scoreless for the first time this season.
“PV’s a good team,” said Ankeny coach Trevor Fuccio, whose squad is now 6-4-1 on the year. “We just weren’t able to compete with the physicality today.”
Pleasant Valley raised its record to 10-1-1. Four of those wins have come against outclassed opponents in the Mississippi Athletic Conference, but the Spartans proved over the last two days that they can compete with teams from the CIML.
“We had tons of space against Southeast Polk and were able to move the ball, and today we had a little tighter field and PV is a very physical team,” Fuccio said. “I just don’t think we adjusted well to the transition from being able to move the ball in space to this physicality today.”
Ankeny’s Ty Newhard and Landon Benge both left the game in the second half after taking hard falls. Benge, who later returned, was fouled in the box with about 17 minutes left to play.
Teammate Austin Lundberg took the ensuing penalty kick, but Pleasant Valley goalkeeper Henry Allers dove to his right to make a save that kept the game scoreless.
Then, about a minute later, Esai Vazquez found the net for the winning goal–his ninth of the season.
“It’s a little frustrating to see the loss today after such a good performance (on Friday), but it’s always tough with the back-to-back games,” Fuccio said. “And it was just two very different games.”
The Hawks celebrated their Senior Night in the win over Southeast Polk. They built a 2-0 halftime lead, then went on to earn their first victory in CIML Conference play–improving to 1-3-1 in the league.
Benge racked up two goals and an assist for Ankeny, while Cal Wahlberg had a goal and two assists. Lundberg added another goal for the Hawks on a penalty kick.
Benge now ranks fourth in Class 4A with 15 goals. Wahlberg ranks second with 13 assists.
“We just had a bunch of composure on the ball and were able to move the ball in the midfield,” Fuccio said. “Southeast Polk is an organized team and plays really compact, and we were willing to play out the other way and move the ball through our midfield. It was just overall a really good performance.”
Ankeny goalkeeper Jackson Dockendorff finished with five saves. Preston Davis had a late goal off an assist by Jaxon Payton for the Rams, who were coming off two consecutive ties.
Southeast Polk is now 1-3-2 in the conference and 4-4-4 overall.
The Hawks will travel to Waukee on Monday for another CIML game against the Warriors (2-9-2).
“It was a physical game (on Saturday) and we had a couple guys go down, but I think everybody is coming out of here pretty unscathed long term,” Fuccio said.
