It took awhile, but the Ankeny Centennial girls’ soccer team finally found the net in Friday’s regular-season finale.
The third-ranked Jaguars scored a pair of goals in the final 8 minutes to defeat visiting Cedar Falls, 2-0, in a non-conference game. They improved to 13-2-1 on the year, while the Tigers dropped to 5-8-2.
“We were, of course, happy to end our regular season with a shutout win,” said Centennial coach Chris Allen. “We didn’t approach the game with a particular strategy but rather with the mindset to refine some details we had been noticing needed attention. The team did well with those details and stayed resilient in finding a way to beat a very good goalkeeper and organized defense very late in the game.”
Cedar Falls boasts one of the state’s best goalkeepers in Alexis Montgomery. She made 21 saves to keep the Tigers in the game.
“We maintained a lot of the possession, and we were able to keep the ball in their half for the majority of the game,” said Centennial senior Emmarie Becker. “We were getting to the end line and able to generate chances, but we kind of struggled keeping the ball away from the keeper. We were able to talk about it at halftime and the second half went a lot better for us. We worked with each other and passed it around in their box and were able to find the back of the net twice.”
Centennial finally broke the ice when Mady Postma scored off an assist by Josie Ehlinger at the 72:11 mark. It was Postma’s team-leading ninth goal of the season.
The Jaguars, who bounced back from Tuesday’s 2-0 loss to No. 1 Waukee Northwest, then added an insurance goal with barely a minute remaining. Becker scored for the sixth time this season to put it away.
Becker was assisted by freshman Kayle Pezzetti, who picked up her team-leading sixth assist of the year.
“We generated a corner (kick) and decided to go short,” Becker said. “Once it went short, Kayle received the ball back and placed it into the box. I made a back post run and was able to get my head on it.”
Goalkeeper Rylee Litchfield finished with three saves in the win. Centennial recorded its eighth clean sheet in 16 games.
The Jaguars had to make some adjustments without freshman dual-sport athlete Rebecca Flick, who was focusing on the state track meet this weekend. They also played most of the game without sophomore defender Hadley Bergan, who was battling a back issue.
“We had to shift some things around,” Allen said.
Centennial will now prepare for postseason play, where the Jaguars could meet Cedar Falls again. The Tigers will host Waterloo West (1-12-2) in a Class 3A regional quarterfinal on Wednesday, and the winner will advance to play Centennial in a semifinal game on June 2 at Northview at 7 p.m.
“I am very happy that we were able to end the regular season with a win, and I’m proud of our performance all throughout the regular season!” Becker said. “We’re excited for the postseason and ready to give it all we got to spend one more day together.”
