(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
For the first time since the 2018 season, the Ankeny boys’ soccer team is heading to the state tournament semifinals.
The eighth-ranked Hawks got a pair of goals from senior Landon Benge and another from junior Cal Wahlberg to post a 3-1 victory over No. 2 Des Moines Roosevelt in a Class 4A quarterfinal on Monday at Mediacom Stadium.
“This year, we’ve been quality all year and I’m really proud of the boys,” said Ankeny coach Trevor Fuccio. “They deserved it tonight. They’ve fought and battled all year.”
Ankeny finally got over the quarterfinal hump that it’s struggled with in recent seasons. The seniors helping guide the Hawks had previously lost twice in the quarterfinals–to Dowling Catholic last year and to Waukee Northwest in 2022.
“It feels absolutely great knowing that we won the first round because that’s the first time in my time here,” said Dylan Gloviak, one of Ankeny’s senior captains. “I was on the team my freshman year, I got hurt, and we weren’t able to (advance). Sophomore year, we didn’t even make it (to state). Last year we lost in the first round again. It just feels great for this group to get over the hump. We’ve been working hard for four years now, so it feels really good.”
But the Hawks (12-5-2) knew they were going to have their work cut out for them if they wanted to reach the final four in Class 4A.
Roosevelt is a team that scores a lot of goals and doesn’t allow for other teams to score against them, which led the Roughriders to a 17-1-1 record coming into the tournament.
They lost 3-2 against Dowling to open the season, and the only other game that didn’t end with a win was a 1-1 draw against Ames in late April. Since that game, Roosevelt had only conceded one goal, which came in its 3-1 victory over Mason City during a substate semifinal.
“Their backline was a little banged up, and they were missing one of their centerbacks who makes them hard to play through,” Fuccio said. “But they got two quality guys at centerback because they moved their outside back in. We just knew we had to be the aggressor, we knew the physicality would be there, we just had to keep our heads and stay mentally composed.”
So naturally, the Hawks scored just 2 minutes and 25 seconds into the game.
Benge had an early potential breakaway get stopped by a whistle, but Ankeny’s leading scorer found another opportunity shortly thereafter by capitalizing on a Roosevelt mistake.
Benge was able to box out a defender from behind and tapped the ball away from Roosevelt goalkeeper Caden Lane, who came up to try to cover the ball before Benge could get a shot off. Instead, a wide open net was left for Benge–and he easily scored the first of his two goals in the game.
“It was a mistake from them,” Benge said. “I took an interception from a pass and I saw the keeper coming out really hard, took a touch around him and put it in the back of the net.”
Roosevelt had only conceded two or more goals just three times during the season, and all three were at the beginning of the spring. After the first three games, it only conceded six total goals.
So the Roughriders got put into some unfamiliar territory not long after Benge’s goal.
Wahlberg, Ankeny’s extra time hero against Des Moines Lincoln in Thursday’s substate final, lined up for a corner kick in the 20th minute.
Much like his golden goal to send them to state, his corner got cleared out and back to the foot of Wahlberg. He played it back in off his left foot and got the ball to curve right into the goal to put the Roughriders down two goals midway through the first half.
“I don’t know if it’s a good thought to drop into his head that he should be shooting from there,” Fuccio said of Wahlberg’s goal. “But tonight it was intentional. So if it works back-to-back and one’s on accident, I think he’s got a good thing going.”
Having an extra goal to cushion the lead ended up paying off for Ankeny as the Roughriders got on the board in the 31st minute on a penalty kick by Ephraim Lunganga.
The second half went on to show that sometimes composure and smart play are just as critical as goal scoring.
Contact, whistles and cards became much more plentiful in the final 40 minutes of play, and it ended up being a big part of the Roughriders’ downfall.
With 17 minutes left to play, Roosevelt’s Joshua Roman-Castro was whistled for a second yellow card, which automatically resulted in a red card.
Just over a minute later, teammate Isaiah LaMark was given another red card to put the Roughriders down to nine men on the pitch.
“That’s where the captains come in and our brains come in here,” Gloviak said. “We hold ourselves accountable because we can’t do anything to hurt ourselves in the next round or put this game in jeopardy. It was a lot of relaxation, taking our time with the ball, keeping ourselves composed, and keeping each other accountable.”
With a two-man advantage, the Hawks were confident they could hold on and Benge ultimately put the game away with a dagger goal in the 71st minute–his 27th of the season.
Ankeny will now face No. 1 Valley (19-1) in the semifinals on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Mediacom Stadium. The Tigers extended their winning streak to 19 games with a 3-0 victory over Pleasant Valley on Monday.
Valley has been unbeatable since opening the season with a 1-0 loss to Ames. The Tigers defeated Ankeny, 3-1, on April 8.
It’ll be a tall task for the Hawks, but they know that at their best, they can contend with any team in the state.
“It felt amazing,” Benge said of his second goal. “This is the team I’ve been told that has one of the best backlines in the state, and we just showed that we can defeat anybody.”
