The Ankeny Centennial girls’ soccer team took advantage of a depleted opponent on Wednesday to move one victory away from another trip to the Class 3A state tournament.
The third-ranked Jaguars scored a season-high nine goals and rolled to a 9-0 victory over Urbandale in a Class 3A regional semifinal at Ankeny Stadium. The J-Hawks had not allowed more than six goals in any game this season.
“I think unfortunately for Urbandale they are really depleted right now,” said Centennial coach Chris Allen. “On the good end of it they got a lot of kids experience in a tough game, but they just weren’t at full force tonight. But they hung in there and fought hard.”
The Jaguars had won an earlier meeting at Urbandale, 3-0, on April 18. The J-Hawks battled Centennial to a 0-0 draw in the first half of that game.
“They have a few key players out, but I think we’ve just improved a lot,” said Centennial defender Maddison Balashaitis. “It was pretty early in the season. We’ve really been focusing on the small things for sure.”
Evie Boyle, Ava Martin and Josie Ehlinger each had a pair of goals and Mady Postma added three assists as the Jaguars improved to 13-3-2. Urbandale finished the season at 5-12-1.
“We knew they were a good team,” said Martin. “They’re from the CIML, so you know they play good competition. We’ve been practicing hard and having really good practices, so I just feel like we had a really good mentality coming in.”
The Jaguars scored twice in a span of 60 seconds midway through the first half to ignite the offensive onslaught. Martin found the net after winning a scrum against Urbandale keeper Chelsea Fuchsen for the ball, then Balashaitis scored on a header off a corner kick by Olivia Kroska to make it 2-0 about 18 minutes into the game.
About 3 minutes later, Centennial scored again off another corner kick by Kroska. Balashaitis saved the ball from going out of bounds by heading it to Boyle, who then headed it into the net.
“It’s something we’ve been working on a little bit more, like with our technique,” Balashaitis said of the set pieces. “We were getting on them but just not finishing. So we just had to execute and get the technique right.”
Boyle scored again off another corner kick by Kroska in the 42nd minute. The Jaguars later completed the scoring off another set piece with about 6 minutes left, when Ehlinger volleyed in a corner kick by Boyle.
“There were a couple that we might have even missed, too,” Allen said. “But we absolutely got on those corners and took advantage of them. That’s something we’ve been challenging them to do, just be a little sharper in those moments. Those are the difference-makers sometimes when you get into the state run–who is going to be good on that set piece.”
Martin scored her second goal on a counterattack in the 51st minute. It was her team-leading 14th goal of the season.
Piper Zeman got a goal midway through the second half before Ehlinger blasted a shot off Fuchsen and into the net about 2 minutes later. Addison Fair added another goal in the 70th minute.
Ehlinger and Emily Conger also had assists for Centennial, which went on to post its 12th clean sheet of the season.
“It feels really good to move on to the next game,” Martin said.
The Jaguars will host Des Moines Roosevelt (11-4-1) in the regional final on Friday at 7 p.m. The Roughriders advanced with a 4-2 win over Marshalltown, getting a hat trick from sophomore Ziva Spellman.
Spellman ranks fourth in Class 3A with 28 goals. Teammate Parker Bosch, a freshman, has scored 13 goals.
“I think when I was scouting Johnston I saw a little bit of Roosevelt, but that was early season Roosevelt,” Allen said. “I’ll have to dig around and see what I can find as far as more recent Roosevelt.”
Centennial is looking to qualify for state for the 10th time in the 11-year history of the program.
“I think we are (peaking), but there’s still a lot to do,” Balashaitis said. “No game is going to be easy from here on out.”
