Five years after its inaugural season, when Waukee Northwest finished as state runners-up, the Wolves finally finished the year on top.
No. 2 Northwest (20-1-1) came from a goal down to beat No. 1 Ankeny Centennial in the Class 4A state championship at the Iowa high school boys soccer state tournament on Friday, June 5.
The Wolves handed the Jaguars their first loss of the season while collecting the program’s first boys soccer state title in the process.
“It feels great to bring home the first state championship for boys soccer,” said junior Sully Ervin. “History’s been written. This team, I knew was something special…and as a team, we won the state championship.”
But it wasn’t always clear that the Wolves would claim the title.
The Jaguars applied pressure early, tallying six shots to Northwest’s one in the opening minutes of the game. Centennial collected three shots on goal during that span, but it was the Wolves who turned up the heat in the final 10 minutes of the half.
With nine minutes on the clock, Ervin sent a hard shot in the direction of Centennial’s goal, but it bounced off the crossbar. The ball landed on the foot of Kenan Quaid, who attempted to score off the rebound, but the ball soared over the top of the goal.
The back-and-forth on the field continued, but Northwest mostly controlled possession. And with 30 seconds remaining in the first half, Eman Alicic nearly capitalized on a free kick from just outside the box, but Alen Mujakovic turned his back and got between the sophomore scorer and Centennial’s keeper.
With that late block, Centennial and Northwest headed to the locker room without any goals on the scoreboard.
The Jaguars nearly picked up a goal off a corner kick in the first minute-and-a-half out of the break, but Wolves keeper Tate Schendel got in front of Brock Brazeau’s attempt. Northwest responded with a few attempts of their own a couple minutes later. One shot hit the left post, and the second-chance attempt was scooped up by Centennial keeper Will Krueger.
And then the scoreless streak ended.
Jaguars’ senior Tate Duax settled the ball just in front of the goal line, to the right of Northwest’s net. He crossed a pass into the middle of the box, right where Garrett Christensen ran onto it and let off a shot that crashed into the back of the net to give Centennial a 1-0 lead.
The Jaguars’ lead didn’t last long, though.
Less than 10 minutes later, Samuel Temple directed a cross-field pass to Ervin, whose shot crept past Krueger and a Centennial defender and into the left corner of the net. With 25 left on the clock, the score was tied at one goal each.
“There’s something special about Sully,” said Northwest coach Carlos Acebey. “Seeing him score, that just felt so good for him and good for me, and I’m so proud of him.”
The Wolves took their first lead of the game with 19 minutes remaining. Cal Blakley went down in the box, and Alicic stepped up to take the ensuing penalty kick. He slipped it past Krueger’s outstretched hands to power Northwest to a 2-1 lead.
“He’s a security blanket for us,” Acebey said. “He’s the one that we look for to release pressure. He’s the one that can take on additional responsibilities. He’s the one that we look to create and score goals, and he showed that today.
“Even if he’s not scoring during the run play, he’s going to bury that penalty kick 100 out of 100 times. I have complete faith in that.”
But the Wolves weren’t done just yet.
After a scramble in front of the net, freshman Jose Venales scored his first goal of the season, tapping in a championship-sealing score that put Northwest up, 3-1, with 20 seconds left on the clock.
The Jaguars – who made it back to the state tournament behind a senior-heavy squad – end the season with a 17-0-2 record.
“The senior class raised the standard for Centennial,” said head coach Brian Duax. “We got to continue building on it. It stinks we didn’t end up on top, but they raised the level of what we expect at Centennial.
“Because my son’s on the team, there’s a lot of kids I consider my children. It’s really hard not to have them succeed the way we want them to. We’ll continue building, we’ll continue growing, but it’s hard today.”
Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Waukee Northwest beats Ankeny Centennial for Iowa boys soccer title
Reporting by Alyssa Hertel, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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By Alyssa Hertel, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
