When the Ankeny Centennial boys’ soccer team jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on Monday at third-ranked Ames, it appeared that the Jaguars could be primed to pull off an upset in the non-conference game.
But then standout junior forward Tate Duax received a red card shortly thereafter, taking Centennial’s leading scorer off the field and forcing the team to play a man down the rest of the way.
“We’ve talked about the need to be more passionate,” said Centennial coach Brian Duax, Tate’s father. “More passionate doesn’t mean you get up and scream in front of their bench and get a red card. That was a learning moment. He was playing really well before that, but hopefully he learns from it and we move forward.”
That’s exactly what the rest of the Jaguars did.
Fellow junior Brock Brazeau scored a pair of goals, added an assist and led Centennial to a stunning 4-1 victory. It was only the third loss for the Little Cyclones (10-3-1), who are the only team to defeat No. 1 Valley.
“I knew we had to battle and give 110 percent,” said Brazeau. “(Losing Tate) took away one of our best players, but I still had faith in my boys.”
Alen Mujakovic had a goal and an assist for the Jaguars, who also got a goal from Mace Nithang. Mason Goble added an assist.
“Losing a man 10 minutes in, then battling for 70 minutes a man down and scoring four goals, this should be some good momentum for us,” said coach Duax, whose team improved to 8-5. “It should be a good galvanizing point for us. That’s a pretty good result against the No. 3 team in the state.”
After Ames closed the gap to 2-1 before the half, the Little Cyclones seemed to have the momentum. But Brazeau refused to let it carry over to the final 40 minutes.
He extended the margin to 3-1 with a spectacular goal early in the second half.
“I saw the (defender)–his momentum kind of went down the sideline,” Brazeau said. “I was like, ‘I’m just going to cut in and let it go.'”
Just a few minutes later, Brazeau found the net again when he blasted a direct kick past the Ames keeper for his sixth goal of the season.
“I saw the keeper in the middle,” Brazeau said. “It was 50/50. I picked the far post, hit it with some power and hoped for the best.”
Coach Duax called it an unbelievable performance.
“When you needed somebody to rise, Brock rose to the occasion for sure,” he said. “Both scoring goals and doing the work defensively. But a lot of guys did. We were basically playing with one guy up top, so that guy had to do a ton of work. So we were doing that by platoon.”
The Jaguars will return to CIML Conference action on Friday when they travel to Waukee to face the Warriors (2-10-2).
“It’s a big step for us, but we’ve got to keep taking steps forward and not take any steps back,” Brazeau said.
