The Ankeny Centennial girls’ soccer players won’t lose any sleep over the result of Tuesday’s showdown against visiting Waukee Northwest.
The top-ranked Wolves captured the outright CIML Conference title with a 2-0 victory at No. 3 Centennial, but the Jaguars are hoping to win an even bigger prize in a few weeks–the Class 3A state championship.
“It would have been fun to win it,” Centennial coach Chris Allen said of the league crown. “It was nice to be in a situation where we controlled our own destiny and had to get the win, but unfortunately it didn’t happen. Northwest was really good when they needed to be. Hat’s off to them for doing what they needed to do in their big moments.”
Northwest, the defending state champion, scored both of its goals in the second half. The Wolves took the lead in the 48th minute when Natalie Elliott stole the ball in Centennial’s defensive third, dribbled across the top of the box and then fired a rocket past goalkeeper Rylee Litchfield.
“We created a situation where there didn’t need to be pressure unfortunately,” Allen said. “We put a player in pressure and lost the ball in transition, and then we kind of lost our balance defending a couple of times in a row. (Elliott) had a great finish, though. You love a winger that can come across the box and put one in far bar, so hat’s off to her. That’s a classic finish for that player.”
The Jaguars nearly got an equalizer in the 65th minute. Jaeden Jackson lofted a shot that went over the head of Northwest goalkeeper Grace Thomason, but the senior reached up and pinned the ball against the crossbar before corralling it.
It was one of seven saves for Thomason on the night.
“We can play with them,” Allen said. “We had our chances too on the other end. We went off the bar, and we got in a couple breakaways and just didn’t have the composure to go a little deeper in the attack to get the keeper to commit or hesitate a little bit. We kind of took a shot before we needed to, and we had plenty of crosses that just didn’t find the mark.”
The Wolves then sealed the win at the 70:44 mark, when Grace Hummel was fouled by Evie Boyle as she dribbled toward the goal on the right side of the box. Romey Croatt then converted the ensuing penalty kick, booting the ball into the upper right corner of the net.
“That was a pretty calm finish, too,” Allen said.
Northwest then relied on its defense to preserve the clean sheet. The Wolves have allowed only three goals all season.
Northwest finished 6-0-2 in the conference and improved to 9-0-3 overall. The Jaguars’ records dropped to 6-2 and 12-2-1.
The Wolves have won the last six meetings in the series. Centennial’s last win came in the Class 3A quarterfinals in 2022.
The Jaguars will host a non-conference game against Cedar Falls (5-7-2) on Friday to close out the regular season.
