Ankeny Centennial girls’ soccer coach Chris Allen had plenty of reasons to be concerned about his team’s postseason opener.
Unranked Cedar Falls traveled to Ankeny on Tuesday for the second time in 12 days to face No. 3 Centennial in a Class 3A regional semifinal at Northview. In the previous meeting on May 22, the Jaguars were held scoreless for more than 72 minutes before escaping with a 2-0 victory.
Most of Allen’s discomfort revolved around Cedar Falls senior Alexis Montgomery, who backed up her reputation as one of the state’s best goalkeepers by racking up 21 saves in the regular-season finale at Centennial.
“They had me nervous about this game,” Allen said of the Tigers after his team cruised to a 5-0 win in the rematch. “I thought it was really important that we got an early goal. I didn’t expect it in the first 30 seconds, but I’m glad it was. It took a lot of the pressure off and allowed us to play our game more. And then the more goals we scored, that allowed us to put more bodies through and sub pretty often so that we kept players rested too.”
Mady Postma provided the early spark in the opening minute by scoring the first of her two goals on the night.
“Our game plan was to kind of take them out of the game early, score and get ahead early. And that’s exactly what happened,” Postma said. “We just let the ball run in front of us, and we do the rest. It was just a good pass and a good finish overall.”
The quick goal seemed to rattle Montgomery. She picked up a yellow card less than 5 minutes into the game after having a brief discussion with the referee.
Things only got worse for the Tigers from there.
After Montgomery returned to the game, Centennial’s Emmarie Becker scored on a header off a corner kick by Evie Boyle in the 22nd minute. It was Becker’s seventh goal of the season.
“They just kind of left me back post, and I had a free run and I was able to track it,” Becker said. “Evie played a great ball in, and I was just able to get my head on it.”
In the 29th minute, the Jaguars extended the margin to 3-0 on a goal by Kayle Pezzetti. Jaeden Jackson outran a Cedar Falls defender down the right sideline and then crossed the ball to Pezzetti, who was able to fire a shot past Montgomery.
Jackson had two of the team’s five assists, her first two of the year. Pezzetti also had one, her team-leading seventh.
“We always focus on getting the extra pass,” Postma said. “You can’t be direct (with a shot) against a quality keeper like her so you’ve got to get that extra pass from the end line, slot it and finish it, kind of like what Kayle did.”
Centennial added another goal right before halftime when Piper Zeman found the net off a pass from freshman Saylor Horsley, who earned her first assist of the season.
“That’s been pretty typical for us,” Allen said of his team’s balanced attack. “We don’t have any huge goal numbers or anything like that. We have them spread out all over the place.”
Postma, a junior, added to her team-leading total with a second goal in the 43rd minute. She now has 11 goals on the season.
“It feels really good,” Postma said of the win. “It’s dog eat dog around here, so we just had to get it done tonight.”
The Jaguars raised their record to 14-2-1. Cedar Falls finished the season at 7-9-2.
Becker was relieved by the result, which moved her team a step closer to an 11th state tournament berth in the 12-year history of the program.
“It feels amazing,” Becker said. “We had all last week to practice because we just played them, and we had a late goal (to beat them) so were a little nervous about that. But being able to execute our plans, it felt really good tonight.”
The Jaguars will face another rematch in the regional final. They will host No. 12 Cedar Rapids Prairie (9-5) on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Northview.
Prairie advanced with a 4-0 triumph over Davenport Central. The Hawks are led by the duo of Sophia Netolicky and Olivia Divoky, who entered Tuesday’s game with 18 and 15 goals, respectively.
Prairie will be looking to avenge a 5-0 loss at Centennial on April 10.
“I like our team, so of course we like our chances,” Allen said. “I really believe in this group and what they can accomplish. When they play good soccer, it’s hard to keep up with them.”
