Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – The expectations within the City High soccer program are always sky high.

Tasked with replacing eight senior starters and 73 percent of its goal scoring from last year’s state quarterfinal team veteran coach Jose Fajardo cautioned his young team early this season of setting lofty goals.

“We always tell our kids to create realistic goals,” Fajardo said. “Don’t say you are going to go to the moon before you even have a motorcycle.”

City High didn’t get to the moon this season but the Little Hawks certainly soared higher than many expected.

A young City High team had an impressive season come to an end on Monday with a 4-0 loss to top-ranked and unbeaten Ankeny Centennial (16-0-2) on Monday in a Class 4A state quarterfinal at Valley Stadium in Des Moines.

“We weren’t just replacing one or two guys we were replacing so many guys and they did an unbelievable job this season,” Fajardo said. “They are resilient, they don’t stop working. Even today, they didn’t stop working so I am proud of them. I am really, really, really proud of them.”

Like City High a season ago Ankeny Centennial is a veteran team with eight senior starters.

Three of those seniors, Tate Duax, Lucas De la Cuba and Garrett Christensen accounted for all four goals on Monday as the Jaguars returned to the state semifinals for the first time since 2023.

“They are a good team and on top of that they are full of seniors and you can see it,” Fajardo said. “You can see it in the way they play, the way they move the ball. They deserved to win.”

Ankeny Centennial stretched its winning streak to 11 with the win and will play ninth-ranked Des Moines Roosevelt (14-2-3) in the 4A semifinals on Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Mediacom Stadium in Des Moines.

The loss snapped a six-match winning streak for City High that included a 2-0 win over sixth-ranked Dubuque Senior in the substate title match on Friday.

“We knew we were coming her today with chances but knowing that they are who they are right now and we’ve been there,” Fajardo said. “We needed to wait for our little moment and it didn’t happen.”

Ankeny Centennial got on the board when De la Cuba scored off a Duax assist with 24:49 remaining in the first half.

The Jaguars seized control of the match with two goals in less than a minute late in the opening half.

Duax scored with 1:56 remaining in the first half and Garrett Christensen scored off a De la Cuba feed with 1:01 remaining to make it 3-0 Ankeny Centennial at intermission.

“We were in the game at 1-0 and we committed two mistakes and we know in these games you can not make mistakes,” Fajardo said. “Those two goals at the end of the half killed us because at 1-0 we knew we could do it. We had a plan and the plan was semi working but those two goals it was too much for a team like that, they are undefeated for a reason.”

City High had an opportunity to cut into the lead early in the second half but a shot from Colin Riley from inside the box sailed just right of the post.

Duax added his Class 4A-leading 28^th goal of the season off a Christensen assist with 10:15 remaining to cap the scoring.

“At the start of the season I asked our players what was the percentage of playing time that you had last year and it was very minimal except for Seth (Zeithamel), Ben (Borger-Germann) and Taylor (Salinas) so it’s really a new team,” Fajardo said. “What they have done is unbelievable.”

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