(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
When the Ankeny Centennial boys’ soccer team brings its “A” game, there might not be another squad in the state that can touch the Jaguars.
Waterloo West found that out the hard way during Friday’s Class 4A Substate 6 championship game.
The top-ranked Jaguars recorded eight goals from five different players, which included a six-goal eruption in the second half, while holding the visiting Wahawks without a single shot during their 8-0 clean sheet.
Centennial will head back to the Class 4A state tournament for the first time since 2023.
“It feels great,” said senior captain Mace Nithang. “I wanted to get the feeling from freshman year back again. We’re here, we sent a message with the score, and we’re ready for the next one.”
“This win felt extra amazing because the past few years we’ve had bad upsets, and we’ve been down a couple years,” added senior forward Andrew Krueger, who scored a pair of goals. “We all knew we were winding up for this year. We showed up, and we’ve been working hard at practice every day.”
The last time the Jaguars qualified for the state tournament, they knocked off top-seeded and fourth-ranked Waukee Northwest, 2-1, in the substate final and eventually reached the Class 4A semifinals.
Centennial coach Brian Duax’s undefeated squad was more than ready to rise to the occasion with a trip back to the state tournament on the line.
“Before the game I had the butterflies that you always get before a big game,” Duax said. “It just makes you feel alive.”
The Jaguars immediately put pressure on Waterloo West’s back line with Garrett Christensen putting a shot on goal in the first 30 seconds. Brock Brazeau had a free kick just outside the box sail high just a few minutes later.
In the 7th minute, Krueger planned on crossing the ball in for Christensen, but it ended up catching a defender and found its way into the top left corner of the goal for an early 1-0 lead.
“That first goal, I was just trying to cross it to the back corner for Garrett to kick it in,” Krueger said. “It nicked off (the defender’s) leg and went top corner. It took me a second to figure out that I scored, and that’s when the momentum started.”
Zachary Clark subbed into the match just a couple of minutes later, and it didn’t take long for Tate Duax to find him in front of the net. Clark scored his fourth goal of the season in the 17th minute.
Centennial had numerous chances to extend its lead before the half, but the Jaguars were unable to capitalize and had to settle for the 2-0 advantage at the break.
“In the first half, we didn’t finish enough chances, but we knew they’d keep coming,” coach Duax said. “If they kept working the way they were and playing the way they were, it was going to continue creating chances and we just had to have the composure to finish them.”
The floodgates were opened in the second half.
It started with Krueger knocking in his second goal of the night just 5 minutes into the half, and it was immediately followed by Tate Duax intercepting a backwards pass in the 48th minute before scoring the first of his three goals.
Duax completed his hat trick by the 59th minute.
He blasted in his second goal in the 57th minute and found himself back in front of the net with an open shot in the 59th minute to give Centennial a 6-0 lead.
“At our halftime talk, we talked about how the press is definitely on and that’s a good way to score,” said Duax, who also had two assists in the victory. “That’s how I scored my third (goal). The second one I just wanted to get to the ball. I didn’t even look, I just smacked it with my left foot and it ended up going in. The first one, I also just wanted to get to the ball, stole it from him, dribbled another guy and slotted it in.”
Christensen made it 7-0 just over a minute later, and fellow senior Alen Mujakovic put the icing on the cake with a goal in the last 30 seconds to produce the final margin.
Senior Lucas De la Cuba and junior Ty Sexton both recorded two assists on the night. Brazeau and Maddox Rash each added one.
While the forwards were busy piling on the goals, the Centennial back line and goalkeeper Will Krueger squashed the few opportunities the Wahawks had on the Jaguars’ side of the field.
Krueger and backup goalkeeper Sawyer Goble weren’t required to make a single save in the 80 minutes of play as Centennial posted its seventh clean sheet of the season.
The Wahawks finished with a 10-7-1 record.
“It shows how dominant we are, how we limit people’s chances, helps us win games and takes stress off of us,” Nithang said. “It’s a whole team thing, not just the defenders.”
Centennial (15-0-2) will face eighth-seeded Iowa City High (11-4-2) in the Class 4A quarterfinals on Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Valley Stadium. The Little Hawks advanced to state with a pair of road wins over ranked opponents, including a 2-0 victory at No. 6 Dubuque Senior on Friday.
The winner will play No. 4 Southeast Polk (12-3-4) or No. 5 Des Moines Roosevelt (13-2-3) in the semifinals on Wednesday at Mediacom Stadium.
“We’ve just got to take it one game at a time and don’t overlook any opponent,” Nithang said. “We have to set the tone early, make sure our energy levels are up from the start, and just keep going at them until the game is over.”
“If we give our ‘A’ game, we’re going to be tough to beat no matter who we play,” coach Duax added.
