The Ankeny boys’ soccer team opened a difficult stretch of three games in five days with a 2-0 loss at Marshalltown in a non-conference game on Monday.
Things won’t get any easier for the Hawks, who dropped to 2-6 with their third consecutive loss. They will host a non-conference game against Norwalk on Tuesday before traveling to Southeast Polk on Friday for a CIML Conference game against the Rams.
Norwalk (6-3) is the No. 5 team in Class 3A and has posted three straight shutouts. Southeast Polk (6-1-3) is the No. 5 team in Class 4A.
Marshalltown (7-4-1) scored both of its goals on first-half headers by Djiberson Pierre and Aaron Ordaz Zambrano. The Bobcats then held off Ankeny in the second half to match their season-high three-game winning streak.
The Hawks had a chance to gain some momentum when Cal Wahlberg beat a pair of Marshalltown defenders and dribbled across the penalty area midway through the second half. Wahlberg fired a shot that eluded backup goalkeeper Josue Ramos, but junior defender Edgar Meraz–who had retreated behind Ramos and posted up in front of the net–deflected the ball out of bounds.
“‘Rey’ was in the right place at the right time,” Bobcats coach Scott Johannes told the Marshalltown Times-Republican. “It was a hard shot that nailed him pretty solid.”
Ankeny finished with 14 shots, but only three of them were on goal. The Bobcats, meanwhile, took 17 shots–12 of them on goal.
Goalkeeper Jackson Dockendorff made nine saves for the Hawks. One of his stops came on a penalty kick by Angel Gomez.