With a comfortable 3-0 lead and just over 10 minutes left to play, the Ankeny Centennial boys’ soccer team already knew it was headed to Wednesday’s semifinals in the Class 4A state tournament.
But Tate Duax and the top-ranked Jaguars refused to coast against Iowa City High in the quarterfinals on Monday at Valley Stadium.
Duax punctuated his team’s 4-0 victory with a spectacular goal, his second of the night, in the 70th minute. The senior forward had trouble describing the play afterwards.
“As soon as I took that first touch, I don’t remember anything,” Duax said. “I just remember it going in the net and celebrating. My body just took over, and it ended up going in.”
Centennial coach Brian Duax, Tate’s father, was almost left speechless by the goal.
“Unbelievable,” he said. “(With) three guys around you, you roll a ball, beat the keeper and score from a 0 degree angle. Ok, fair enough. Kudos to you.”
Garrett Christensen earned an assist on the goal. He trusted Duax to finish the chance when he passed the ball ahead.
“Sometimes he does (surprise me), but we’re with him in training,” Christensen said. “We know each other outside of the sport too, and we just have trust in our teammates and what they can do.”
Christensen and Lucas De la Cuba each had a goal and an assist as Centennial (16-0-2) advanced to the semifinals for the second time in four years. The Little Hawks, who had their six-game winning streak snapped, finished the season at 11-5-2.
“Honestly, I just think it’s been a year in the making,” Christensen said. “I think we just really came together as a team, and it feels great.”
De la Cuba and fellow seniors Brock Brazeau, Mace Nithang and Ben Ridlen were all freshmen on the 2023 Centennial squad that reached the semifinals before losing to eventual champion Johnston.
“We’ve had two dry years and haven’t been able to make it (back to state), but this year we’ve been really hungry and we proved it today,” said De la Cuba. “So I’m really happy.”
De la Cuba had a chance to give Centennial an early lead, but his shot from in front of the goal was deflected by Iowa City High goalkeeper Ben Borger-Germann for a save.
“Of course I was upset, but I knew our team–Tate and all of our attackers–would get another chance,” De la Cuba said. “And we put them in the back of the net, and that’s all that matters.”
De la Cuba got another chance just a few minutes later when Duax found some space on the right side and crossed the ball to his teammate. This time, De la Cuba rifled a shot past Borger-Germann for the game’s first goal at the 15:11 mark.
“We assumed they were going to sit in because we’re a pretty high-scoring team,” said Tate Duax. “After we got that first one, I knew it was game over.”
Duax scored his first goal at the 38:04 mark off an assist by Zachary Clark. He tracked down the ball while splitting two defenders, then slotted a shot past backup goalkeeper Beckett Roos.
Then, less than a minute later, De la Cuba found Christensen running free down the middle of the field for another goal.
“Tate took the ball, passed to (Lucas), they sent me through and it was just 1-on-1 from there,” Christensen said. “We just pulled them apart, and it was just 1-on-1.”
After giving up two goals in a span of 55 seconds, the Little Hawks walked to the locker room at halftime knowing that their hopes for a third consecutive upset were all but gone. They had defeated No. 7 Bettendorf and No. 6 Dubuque Senior on the road just to qualify for state.
“You could just really tell from their body language (that we broke their spirit),” Christensen said. “They kind of just shut down a little bit. They came out better in the second half than we assumed they would have, because they were going to fight for their season. But two goals in a minute just shuts somebody down.”
The Jaguars went on to record their eighth clean sheet of the season. Iowa City High seldom threatened to score against Centennial goalkeepers Will Krueger and Sawyer Goble.
“I felt like we were in control of that game from the start,” coach Duax said. “I’m not sure what their strategy was in terms of sitting in and just allowing us to have the ball. I don’t know what they were thinking. Once we got one (goal), I expected them to open up and they never really did. They just kind of sat in.
“I fully expected them to come at us full force, but they didn’t. And I’m not going to complain,” he added.
The Jaguars will play No. 9 Des Moines Roosevelt (14-2-3) in the semifinals on Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Mediacom Stadium. The Roughriders advanced with a 3-1 win over No. 5 Southeast Polk.
“They looked decent,” De la Cuba said. “No. 10 (Henry Trettin) is pretty good, but we’re pretty confident we can beat them.”
No. 2 Waukee Northwest (18-1-1) will face No. 4 Urbandale (14-2-3) in the other semifinal at 7:30 p.m. The winners will play for the title on Friday at 2:30 p.m. at Mediacom Stadium.
Centennial is looking to reach the championship game for the first time since 2015, when the Jaguars placed second in Class 3A.
