(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
After the final horn blew and the handshake line concluded, Ankeny Centennial boys’ soccer coach Brian Duax attempted to rally his troops on the sideline for a postgame message.
Unbeknownst to Duax, his son Tate and fellow senior captain Ben Ridlen grabbed the team’s Gatorade cooler full of ice water and snuck up on their coach for a celebratory water bath.
Centennial’s 1-0 road victory over No. 5 Southeast Polk on Friday not only meant the top-ranked Jaguars finished the regular season undefeated at 13-0-2, but they also clinched the outright CIML Conference title.
“Obviously (winning the conference) feels great,” said Tate Duax, who registered an assist in the win. “I don’t think it’s happened in school history and if it has, it hasn’t been for a long time. So to do it with this group is very special.”
“It just shows that throughout the years, we’ve been getting better and better,” added fellow senior captain Mace Nithang. “For the senior class to come out and perform like how we’ve been performing, it’s very fulfilling.”
The Jaguars controlled their own destiny as they headed into Friday’s showdown with Southeast Polk, which was looking to keep its conference title hopes alive.
There was a scenario where the Rams could share the league crown with Centennial, along with a slim possibility that both teams could tie for the title along with No. 2 Waukee Northwest.
Both scenarios relied on Southeast Polk becoming the first team to defeat the Jaguars this season.
“(The conference title) is rewarding, and we talked about it before the game,” said Brian Duax, whose team finished 6-0-2 in league play. “Conference titles are nice, conference titles are little trophies, but conference titles are not what we’re after. We’re after big trophies. This is a step and this is a building block, but this isn’t the end goal at all.”
Despite the Jaguars and Rams both being led by one of the state’s leading scorers in Duax and Southeast Polk’s Cole Skinner, chances for either team were few and far between during the first 40 minutes of play.
Things quickly changed in the opening minutes of the second half.
Duax and Skinner both found early chances that ended with Centennial sophomore goalkeeper Will Krueger swallowing up a shot from Skinner and Southeast Polk goalkeeper Josh Sapp following it up by getting on a rocket from Duax shortly thereafter.
The game-winning goal came just over 2 minutes into the second half from senior Garrett Christensen.
Duax, flanked by a trio of defenders, was able to get a foot on a loose ball inside the box and tapped it back out to Christensen, who was able to find a lane past a defender and beat Sapp for the 43rd minute goal.
“Tate’s just mindful of people around him and he draws so much attention that if you’re just mindful of what’s around you, then you can find an opportunity to take a chance,” Christensen said. “(Scoring the goal) felt great. It’s been awhile, so it’s just awesome.”
It was Christensen’s seventh goal of the season and his first since Centennial’s 4-0 home victory over Ames on May 4.
Getting the go-ahead goal was one piece of the puzzle for the Jaguars, but another big piece was finding a way to limit one of the state’s leading scorers in Skinner, who ranks first in Class 4A with 21 goals on the season–two more than Duax.
Southeast Polk has only been held without a goal four times this season and three of them came in scoreless draws against Class 3A No. 3 Davenport North, Class 3A No. 2 Dallas Center-Grimes and Waukee Northwest.
Outside of Centennial’s win, the only other clean sheet recorded against the Rams came in No. 6 Johnston’s 3-0 victory in the third game of the season.
“I challenged our back two,” Brian Duax said. “As we attack, we basically only leave Mace and Ben (Ridlen) back there. I challenged them to not let (Skinner) have any opportunities and for the most part, they didn’t let him have any opportunities.”
After Centennial scored its go-ahead goal, the Jaguars worked to burn time off the clock with the wind at their backs.
Once the Rams had to attempt to rally to try to get an equalizer, Centennial was able to rely on its stout back line to limit chances.
Skinner was able to find a couple of different chances to take a shot, but none were able to beat Krueger, who helped the Jaguars post their sixth clean sheet of the season.
Southeast Polk finished 4-2-2 in the conference and dropped to 10-3-4 overall.
“We just had to know where (Skinner) was the whole time and having two on him if we can with one in the back and one in front of him,” Nithang said. “Just being aware, giving him less chances compared to everyone else on the field, always knowing where he’s at and making sure he’s being marked.”
The Jaguars will now prepare for postseason play. They’ll have some time off before hosting Cedar Rapids Jefferson (4-8-3) in a Class 4A substate semifinal on May 27.
“It’s all about (the boys’) buy-in and the team culture,” Brian Duax said. “These guys bought into the team over themselves. We don’t care who scores the goals, we don’t care who gets the stats, we just care that the one stat we get is the W. They’ve bought in and hopefully the younger groups see that, they buy in and the tradition keeps continuing.”
