Ankeny senior Landon Benge stood on the field at Mediacom Stadium, his future home as a member of the Drake men’s soccer team.
His brilliant high school career had just ended a few minutes earlier, short of his ultimate goal.
“I am so proud of this team,” Benge said as he hugged his teammates after eighth-ranked Ankeny fell to No. 1 Valley, 1-0, in a Class 4A semifinal on Thursday. “The things that we accomplished this year, nobody thought we could do. Other than the the guys on this team, nobody thought we’d be here today. I just want to say that I’m proud of every single person for working so hard on and off the field every single day.”
The Hawks finished the season with a 12-6-2 record after becoming Valley’s latest shutout victim. The Tigers (20-1) posted their seventh consecutive clean sheet and their 14th overall while extending their winning streak to 20 games.
“We took too long to make adjustments up top to free up Lando or our other wingers,” said Ankeny coach Trevor Fuccio. “We created a bunch of chances in the second half off set pieces, but from the run of play they defend very well and we were just losing individual battles across the field.”
Ankeny was hoping to avenge a 3-1 loss at Valley on April 8. In that game, the Hawks got a first-half goal from Keaton Kobow to take an early lead.
On Thursday, the Tigers struck first before some fans had even settled into their seats. They scored the game’s only goal just 66 seconds into the first half.
Eric Foust came up with the ball after two Ankeny players failed to possess it. He cut around a defender, then blasted a shot past goalkeeper Jackson Dockendorff and into the left side of the net.
It was the 11th goal of the season for Foust, who is one of seven Tigers with at least six goals. He was assisted by Pablo Mendez, who earned his Class 4A-leading 23rd assist.
“We had two guys go for it and neither one got it, then it bounced and they were in on goal,” Fuccio said. “I know the nerves were a factor in it. I trust this group to clear that every day of the week. We knew this was a game where we had to get loose and get composed, and it just took us too long to get there.”
Early in the second half, the game was delayed for a few minutes after a collision between Ankeny’s Austin Lundberg and Valley’s Alex Mirsky in the midfield. Lundberg was awarded a yellow card on the play, which left Mirsky with an apparent broken leg, according to Valley coach Aziz Haffar.
Both teams had some chances to score in the second half, but they were unable to capitalize. Benge, who entered the game as the third-leading scorer in Class 4A with 27 goals, was constantly surrounded by Valley defenders.
With less than 20 minutes left, Benge took on several Tigers while dribbling the ball toward the goal. He appeared to be knocked down by Cristian Catalan in the box, but no foul was called.
“They put a guy on me most of the game,” Benge said. “It was just unfortunate. We had chances; we just didn’t finish.”
With under 4 minutes to go, Ankeny took a free kick in the midfield that resulted in a couple of headers in the box. But Valley goalkeeper Alexander Poitan, who finished with five saves, could not be cracked.
“I was proud of how we responded after giving up a goal in the first few minutes–just the character of this group to always respond,” Fuccio said. “I’m very proud of them to continue to battle. I thought we grew into the game. It just took us too long to get there.
“We created chances as the game went on and gave ourselves a chance, but the mental lapse at the beginning was hard to recover from,” he added.
The emotions ran high in the final minute, when both Lundberg and Catalan received red cards from the referee. That could be costly for Valley, since Catalan will be ineligible to play in Friday’s championship game.
The Tigers will face No. 4 Johnston (13-4-3), the two-time defending champion, at 7:30 p.m. The Dragons advanced with a 2-1 win over No. 6 Ames.
Valley posted a 2-0 victory at Johnston on May 9.
