(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
The Ankeny girls’ soccer team was one missed penalty kick away from being the first and only squad to defeat top-ranked Waukee Northwest this season.
Despite not pulling off the upset, the No. 6 Hawkettes became only the second team to hold Northwest without a goal and just the third squad to earn a draw with the undefeated Wolves after Tuesday’s scoreless game in Waukee.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the effort that we put in,” said Ankeny coach Gavin Mason. “(Northwest) has been the consensus No. 1 team deservedly so since before the season began. They have a lot of really good individuals, and they play well together. We knew it was going to be a battle, but we believe we’re one of the best teams in the state too.”
Ankeny’s chance to knock off the Wolves came with just under 2 minutes left to play.
Kiersten Petersen led a counter attack in the 79th minute that led to the Ankeny sophomore getting her jersey pulled and bringing her down near the goal.
A red card was assessed to the Wolves, and Ankeny was given a chance to put the game away with a penalty kick.
The Hawkettes turned to Sydney VanHouweling to take the kick, but the senior got a little too much under the ball, placed her shot high of the goal and ultimately led to the two squads coming to a scoreless draw.
“We have all the faith in the world in Sydney,” Mason said. “She’s been center back for us this season, and she’s a fantastic striker. We saw something in that today and moved her forward. Had faith in her to take her chances and if she gets another chance, I have no doubt she’ll put it in the back of the net.”
Goals against Northwest have been few and far between this season as the Wolves had only allowed three goals leading up to Tuesday’s game. They’ve posted five clean sheet victories and haven’t allowed a goal in seven games.
The only goals Northwest allowed came in a 2-1 win over No. 2 Valley, a 5-1 win over Southeast Polk and a 1-1 draw against Gretna East (Neb.). The only other time the Wolves were held scoreless was in a 0-0 draw against No. 4 Waukee.
Before the late penalty kick, one of Ankeny’s best chances to break through came midway through the second half in the 60th minute.
Senior forward and leading goal scorer Ava Paoli found an opening, rifled a shot over Northwest goalkeeper Grace Thomason and drilled the far post. Junior midfielder Isabel Squires had a chance at a rebound shot that was saved by Thomason.
“We absolutely believe that we’re one of the best teams in the state, we’ve been in good form recently, we’ve got really good individuals, and we’ve just been playing really well together,” Mason said. “We came in confident that we could put together a good performance and challenge them.”
The Hawkettes spent most of the first half attempting to keep Northwest off the score sheet with the Wolves getting some extra assistance with the wind during the first 40 minutes of play.
Ankeny sophomore goalkeeper Paige Hartz came up with a couple of saves and had some help from the posts to keep Northwest scoreless going into the half.
The Hawkettes were able to build up some pressure out of the half that was highlighted by a couple of chances opening up for Paoli.
Northwest put some pressure back on the Hawkettes, including a late save from Hartz in the 74th minute and a Wolves’ corner kick getting cleared out in the 76th minute just before Ankeny’s penalty kick.
“(The wind) reminded me a little bit of our game against Waukee where we had really strong winds,” Mason said. “Sometimes all it comes down to is a simple coin flip, which we lose and they go with the wind. It definitely contributed, we weren’t able to get the ball out, but I thought we worked really hard defensively to make up for that.”
The draw dropped Northwest into a first-place tie with No. 3 Ankeny Centennial atop the CIML Conference standings. The Wolves are now 4-0-2 in the league and 7-0-3 overall, while Ankeny’s records are 3-3-1 and 7-4-1.
The Hawkettes will close out conference play with a game at Urbandale on Friday. The J-Hawks are 0-6 in the league and 1-8-1 overall after dropping a 2-0 decision to Waukee on Tuesday.
