Century head coach Rocky Rhoads has had his squad’s matchup with Skyline circled on the calendar for a while because he believes it’s one of the first tests to see where his team is at.

    And after a 1-1 tie on a cold, windy field at Century High School, Rhoads likes what he saw.

    It was a back-and-forth battle, and while the D-backs didn’t live on the Grizzlies’ side of the field the way they’d like to, they didn’t allow many chances for Skyline to score. Credit the bend-but-don’t-break Century backline for keeping the Skyline attack just outside striking distance.

    “I think our defense held shape really well,” Rhoads said. “That’s the one thing that (the Grizzlies) weren’t real dangerous until the very end of the game.”

    After Dan Mende collected a pass 25 yards behind the left corner of the box in the ninth minute, he took two touches and sent the ball sailing past the keeper and behind the right post to make the game 1-0.

    “You could see before he went to strike it, everybody just said, ‘Goal,’” Rhoads said. “Inside 20 yards straight on with really nobody there to block or change his shot, we just knew.

    “That’s just what we expect from him, and when his misses them we’ve shocked.”

    Up a goal, the D-backs found themselves on their heels and repelling Skyline’s constant pressure while putting on some of their own. While they understood the tension of not yielding defensively, the Diamondbacks kept attacking to try and widen the margin.

    But while it didn’t allow a score, Century wasn’t able to capitalize on attacking opportunities. The Diamondback lead almost increased in the 30th minute when Reece Foulkrod found himself alone with just the Skyline keeper between him and the net. The shot was nullified as Foulkrod delivered the ball straight into the keeper’s gut.

    “I thought we created very good opportunities,” Rhoads said. “We hit their keeper probably three or four times that first half.”

    Then, with just over seven minutes left to go, the Diamondback defense that had held for the whole game finally gave out. On a corner kick from Kevin Chavez, Skyline’s Brandon Sanchez found the ball and got it past Century keeper Mauricio Huerta to knot things up at one apiece.

    “I think they obviously kind of wore on us,” Rhoads said. “There was a pretty even game and then we lost possession — those kind of things that kind of help us keep the flow of the game — and that’s going to happen when you play a really talented team.”

    Century (7-1-3, 3-0-1 4A 5-6 District) has the next week off before heading to Rigby in a district showdown. With the experience the Diamondbacks get playing Skyline, a 5A team Rhoads says is loaded with talented seniors, there is much to take away.

    And a tie is more than worth it for Rhoads.

    “We take ties like losses, and we love kids with that attitude,” he said. “They expect to win the game, and that’s the way they play, but they haven’t lost since their first game.”