(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
There were two completely different vibes on the sideline after the first 40 minutes of play in Friday’s Class 3A Region 3 girls’ soccer championship game.
The Ankeny Centennial players were dancing and clapping along with Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” blasting over the Ankeny Stadium speakers. The Des Moines Roosevelt Roughriders were stuck trying to figure out a way to rally back from a 5-0 deficit against the third-ranked Jaguars.
But there was simply no stopping a Centennial team on the hunt for its second Class 3A title in four years as the Jaguars cruised to their second consecutive 9-0 victory to punch their ticket back to the state tournament.
“Our training sessions, our close out to the regular season, and these final two games we’ve just been really climbing,” said Centennial coach Chris Allen, whose team raised its record to 14-3-2. “The girls are getting sharp at the right time in the season.”
It took just 3 minutes and 19 seconds into the game for the floodgates to open.
Fresh off of a two-goal performance in the regional semifinal, Ava Martin quickly put Centennial ahead by scoring the first goal of the game.
Addison Fair made it 2-0 just 2 minutes later, and Jaguars were off to the races while leaving the Roughriders (11-5-1) in the dust.
Martin’s pressure created an own goal in the 16th minute, Olivia Kroska rifled a shot into the top right corner for her second goal of the year just 2 minutes later, and sophomore Josie Ehlinger closed out the first half with Centennial’s fifth goal of the game.
The snowball was still descending down the hill at a rapid rate, and it took Fair nearly the identical amount of time to score at the start of the second half that it took for Martin’s opening goal in the first.
“We’ve been having a ton of good practices lately that have prepared us a lot,” Martin said. “We’ve been executing around the goal a lot, making good chances for ourselves and finishing them.”
Centennial piled in a trio of goals in rapid succession with Emmarie Becker heading the ball in on an Evie Boyle corner kick in the 49th minute, which was followed up by sophomore McKenna Gray scoring her first goal of the season in the 55th minute and Emily Conger closing out the scoring just 36 seconds later.
The Jaguars couldn’t have picked a much better time to have everyone dialed in from top to bottom with the level they’ve been playing at in the past couple of games.
Through Centennial’s two postseason games, it has outscored its opponents by an 18-0 margin. Overall, the Jaguars have won four straight games and outscored their foes, 28-0.
“It feels really exciting,” Fair said. “In the past we’ve had some really close games. So it’s kind of crazy to come out and score this many goals. I’d attribute that to our team and how we’ve worked together over the season. I think we’ve had a lot of growth, it’s took us very far and it’s been really fun.”
Boyle and Mady Postma each had two assists in the win. Outside of firing on all cylinders offensively while not allowing a goal in their last four games, the Jaguars have also been able to rest some of their starters while getting some playing time for their bench with a trip to the state tournament up next.
“It was a game that rewarded everybody that has put in work this season,” Allen said. “There’s been games where some kids haven’t played and this one, we got every kid that was healthy in and they got meaningful minutes.”
Martin, Fair, Kroska and defender Maddison Balashaitis were all freshmen on the state championship team in 2022, and now all four will play huge roles in leading the Jaguars on another hopeful tournament run.
“I think it’s definitely helpful just to learn how to remain composed and get the team composed,” Kroska said. “These are all really important games, and we just can’t take anything for granted.”
Centennial will face No. 6 Johnston (10-3-4) in a Class 3A quarterfinal on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The game will be played on Field 2 at the Lied Recreation Fields on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames.
Johnston qualified for state with a 2-1 win over No. 11 Southeast Polk. The Dragons have won their last three games since battling visiting Centennial to a 1-1 tie on May 13.
In the earlier meeting, the Jaguars scored an own goal in the 42nd minute. Johnston then got an equalizer with 7 minutes left from Lydia Luo, who accounted for nine of her team’s 21 goals prior to Friday’s game.
“I think we’ve just got to come prepared for state and be ready to have a hard week, take on the competition head on, work hard every day, recover and go at it again,” Martin said. “Just have a relentless attitude.”
