Ankeny Centennial denies Iowa City West's bid for second straight crown

DES MOINES — The depth of talent at this year's Class 3A girls' state soccer tournament was obvious from Iowa City West's tournament trail. West defeated fourth-ranked MAC champion Pleasant Valley and MVC champion and top-ranked Cedar Rapids Kennedy en route to the championship game, but ran into an even stronger opponent in second-ranked Ankeny Centennial.

The Jaguars scored two first-half goals and held off the Women of Troy, 2-1, to win the school's first state soccer title. West was trying to win back-to-back titles after winning a year ago with a lineup of underclassmen.

'It's frustrating to not have our repeat and defend our state title, but I think the program's come a long way and I think many of us are back and we're ready to try again next year,' junior Emma Cooper said.

'I'm so proud of us for avenging our losses to PV and Kennedy. I think that says a lot about the character of our team.'

The Jaguars scored on a strange play in the 12th minute when West goalie Caitlin Ryan tried to chase down a loose ball.

When Ryan dove for the ball near the end line to the right of the goal, it squirted away. Centennial's Kenzie Geiger passed to Meg Brandt, who fired a shot into the net with Ryan out of the goal.

The second goal came off a corner by junior Adrie Gunn.

'At first, I was trying to find a teammate and someone to get a head on it because we're pretty good at those,' Gunn said. 'But I just saw it curving, and I was like super excited seeing it going into the back of the net.'

TV replays made it seem like when the ball hit the far post, it rebounded and was hit in by Sammy Stoelk. Stoelk said the corner itself went in.

'It was all Adrie — that ball was going in. I just followed it,' Stoelk said. 'Her shot was in.'

'We talked a lot about we've got to get numbers behind the ball,' West Coach Dave Rosenthal said. 'We wanted to make sure our momentum was coming out. I think maybe we lost our back post.'

Cooper said the two odd goals were frustrating.

'They weren't so much in the run of play where we got broken down, but it was just silly mistakes,' she said. 'We came out a little flat, and we really stepped it up in the second half.'

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West started slowly. Centennial seemed to have all the space in the world to work with as players attacked. The Jaguars were first to the ball repeatedly.

At the other end, the Jaguars bottled up all-state attackers Cooper and Regan Steigleder and made it difficult for them to create.

'In the second half, they had two defensive mids on me and two center backs on Emma,' Steigleder said. 'It wasn't hard to find space, but it was hard for us to get the ball.'

'They have a strong midfield and had some really strong players coming in for the back-post run,' Cooper said. 'It was hard for us to get into the forward spaces, but I thought when we did, we took it to them.'

Junior Leah Rhodes scored West's goal in the 51st minute on a shot from the top right of the box. But West couldn't convert newfound momentum into another goal.