KC Star State Soccer Wrap-up

Kansas soccer recap: Hawks, Saints end seasons as state champions By KATHLEEN GIER The Kansas City Star X:\KC Star\20141112\20141112_Admanifest.txt\\192.168.5.222\Olive\E-pub\Daily\Profiles\KC Star\ManifestSetting\manifest_settings_KCS.xml Olathe East’s boys soccer team approached this year’s state tournament with the mentality that it could take nothing for granted. The Hawks learned that the hard way last season, when they took a 19-0-0 record into the state semifinals, but fell 2-0 to Manhattan. This time around, Olathe East did not let that opportunity slip away again. Olathe East defeated Wichita East 4-0 in the semifinals, then topped Washburn Rural 2-1 in the championship to take home its first state title since 2008. It was the Hawks’ sixth overall state championship. “They very much will treasure this moment,” Hawks coach Terry Hair said. “They had an opportunity last year with a different group of guys, but coming close and not achieving it added a little more realization that you have to take that trip to the final four very seriously.” The Hawks were led by Shane Kopplin and Mark Vanlandingham. Both players scored at least three goals during the Hawks’ final four matches. “We stayed within what we do well,” Hair said. “We possessed. We distributed from one flank of the field to the other to get the opposing team to chase, and then — when we did get into the final attacking third — we had numbers and some exceptional shots taken.” The Hawks finished the season with a 20-1-0 record. Defending state champion Blue Valley Northwest lost its semifinal match to Washburn Rural 1-0, but bounced back to defeat Wichita East 7-0 for third place. The Huskies finished 17-3-1 this season. Class 5A: Saints repeat If there was ever a perfect ending for a foreign exchange student’s soccer season, a good case can be made for Lasse Nilsen of St. Thomas Aquinas. Not only did Nilsen score two goals in a 6-0 rout of Harmon in the Kansas Class 5A state championship match, but his family in Sweden was able to watch it all happen — thanks to an online broadcast from the Kansas State High School Activities Association. “His family back in Sweden had a watch party at three in the morning and were watching him live playing in a state final — then he gets two goals,” Aquinas coach Craig Ewing said. “You probably could not write a much better foreign exchange student story for him.” The Saints defended their Class 5A state title and finished the season with a 19-2-0 record. It was the Saints’ tenth title in the last 12 years. Overall, Aquinas has won 16 boys state championships. “I thought our kids played their best game of the year on Saturday,” Ewing said. “I thought our defense really keyed what happened and we scored on three set pieces, which is kind of our M.O.” Class 4-1A: Bishop Miege second Although Bishop Miege lost 2013 Eastern Kansas League Defender of the Year Brandon Ramirez to an ACL tear and started the season with a 1-2-2 record, the two-time defending champion Stags battled their way back to the Kansas Class 4-1A state tournament. Miege defeated Ottawa 4-1 in the semifinals, but fell short of a third straight title after a 1-0 loss to Rose Hill in the title match. The Stags ended their season with a 14-4-2 record.

KC Star Write-up of State Finals

Aquinas adds to its title collection

Saints’ latest championship comes with a 6-0 win over Harmon in 5A boys final.

By RYAN ATKINSON Special to The Star

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The numbers were already impressive for St. Thomas Aquinas, and with its 6-0 win over Harmon on Saturday in the Class 5A state championship game, they became even gaudier.

Two straight titles. Ten in the last 12 years. A total of 16 state crowns.

Not enough? How about Saints coach Craig Ewing, who can now claim 30 – yes 3-0 – state championships between the boys and girls programs at Aquinas?

“That’s impossible,” said Ewing, who started coaching at Aquinas when it opened in 1988 and won his first title four years later. “There are times during all this when I think ‘I don’t know how we’ve done this.’ You have to give credit to the players, who buy into what you’re doing, and you have to be fortunate.”

Fortune may not have had much to do with Saturday’s win at the College Boulevard Activity Center.

Lasse Nilsen and Luke Kutey scored goals fewer than 2 minutes apart and gave the Saints a 2-0 halftime lead. Kutey added a second goal in the second half, just minutes after Joseph Skevington’s shot skipped through a group of Harmon defenders and into the goal. Nilsen and Kevin Feurborn capped the scoring in the final minutes.

Aquinas outshot the Hawks 17-4 and converted on all six of its shots on goal.

“We all came together in the middle of the season and decided this was what we wanted to do; we wanted to defend this championship,” senior Matthew Holland said. “We came out on top and it’s incredible.”

The Saints, with 12 seniors on their roster and two more out because of concussions, finish the season 19-2.

“This means we’re a part of a legacy that’s been going on for years,” senior Matthew Brown said. “To be a part of that is awesome.”

The loss ended a historic run for Harmon. The Hawks, who finished 18-3, made just their second trip to the final four and their first title game appearance.

Harmon looked to have cut Aquinas’ lead in half when Giovanni Calderon found the back of the net with just 3 seconds left on the first-half clock. The goal was waved off, however, thanks to an offsides call. All three of the Hawks’ second-half shots were saved by Aquinas keepers.

“We thought we saw it bounce off a defender, but they called it back,” Harmon coach Carlos Olivas said. “The kids were really down at halftime, but we came back out and played hard. Aquinas is obviously a great program and a great team. We have nothing to hang our heads about.”

Calderon, one of nine Harmon seniors, scored both of the Hawks’ goals in Friday’s semifinal win.

“I’m proud of this whole team and we’re all proud of ourselves,” Calderon said. “To finish in the last two in state is crazy. We have a lot of be proud about.”

Game 21: State Finals vs. JC Harmon

8 November 2014 vs. JC Harmon in the State Finals at CBAC (6-0)

Well, it all ended as we had planned from the first days of summer camp when Brown and Holland started hitting around the "Defend the Ship" idea.  And defend we did.

The boys did such a good job of dismantling Harmon's talented roster as they simply stood player after player up steering them into the next defender all day long. Harmon launched 4 shots the entire match. 

We also did well on the second "D"—deadballs. We finished 3 more today.  

What got the whole thing started, though, was the early goal, as taking the lead in this one would affect all that was to follow. And that first goal was just some great individual striker player by the Norwegian Bandit, just 8 minutes into the match.

And then came that second D: the deadballs.  Just a minute or so later, Johnston lofted a free kick towards the back post. Lucas Bartlett headed it down and across toward the back post. With Kutey's perfect frame, it became 2-0, quickly.

We ran another great long free kick less than a minute later that Bartlett finished back post that seemed to spell GAME OVER, but it correctly was ruled as offsides (as the video confirms.) That call seemed to fire up Harmon, and we just battled to the end of the first half when Harmon scored a goal with 3 seconds to go, but that also was ruled offsides (video does confirm that was a good call as well (hey maybe the refs know what they are doing).) So wow did momentum swing big a couple of times during that first half.

We settled in again after half, continuing to play very good defense where we did not dive in on their talented group, but just to defend as a team, making use of our primary, secondary, and tertiary defenders. Goals 3 and 4 came fairly early in the second half, both on set pieces.

So no there wasn't a lot of drama in the finals. (Maybe we needed a year off from drama after last year's final.) Our seniors knew where the destination was, and they kept us headed in that direction all season.  It was a business like morning with much the same in the afternoon. Not a lot of 6-0 finals come along.

STATS:

First Half: Saints: Shots: 10 (2) Corners: 0

32:03 Nilsen (Lasse strips the defender and niftily moves to goal)

31:37 Kutey (Bartlett squares Jay's long deadball with his head)

Harmon: Shots 1 (0) Corners: 0

Second Half: Shots: 7 (4) Corners: 0

29:31 Skevington (Heying lofts the free kick)

26:30 Kutey (Jay and Matthew run 11 that gets Jay's loft on to a Younger head drive)

2:13 Nilsen (Jay pushes it through for a great Nilsen first touch into a shot)

1:15 Feuerborn (Kutey through ball)

Harmon: Shots: 3 (3) Corners 0

Noteworthy stuff: 1. Derek Engel finished with another shutout (15 for the season! with a goals-against of .566) 2. Considering the final score and our game plan the fact that for the first time in years we finished with 0 corner kicks seems whacked. 3) Yes, Luke Kutey and Lasse Nilsen both had two goals each in the state final, but Jay Johnston rang up a hat trick in assists. 4) Joseph Skevington scored a goal in each of the final-four matches. 5) We say good-bye to 14 seniors: Michael Velasco, Nick D'Adamo, Luke Kutey, Lasse Nilsen, Seth Castinado, Danny Geist, Tony Schiltz, Matthew Holland, Matthew Brown, Jay Johnston, Kevin Feuerborn, Derek Engel, Blake Heying and Matthew McCrave. (Man, that is some serious replacing to do.)

KC Star Write-up of State Finals

The Dog Pile (Did we invent that?)

Bartlett's Video Tribute

KC STAR Wrap

2014 Video Playoff Run

Wichita Eagle Write-up for Semi-Finals

Carroll, Andover fall in 5A boys soccer semis

By Ryan Atkinson/Kansas City Star

Published Nov. 7 at 10:25 p.m. | Last updated Nov. 7 at 10:27 p.m.

OLATHE – Bishop Carroll’s youth couldn’t match the experience and tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas’ boys soccer team on Friday night.

Aquinas, boasting 12 seniors and defending a state title, topped the Golden Eagles 3-0 in the semifinals of the Class 5A tournament at the College Boulevard Activity Center.

Andover dropped the night’s other semifinal, succumbing to a pair of goals less than a minute apart in a 2-0 loss to Kansas City Harmon. 

The Eagles (12-4-4) and Trojans (16-3-1) will square off for third place at noon Saturday before Aquinas and Harmon tussle for the title. Aquinas is looking for its 16th state crown.

“I’ve been trying to stress to the kids to look at the bigger picture,” Carroll coach Mike Skaggs said. “The fourth-place team just gets a medal. The third-place team gets a trophy, too, and our program has never had one. There’s still a lot to play for.”

In the night’s second semifinal, Andover kept Harmon’s offensive attack in check for all but 32 seconds of the game. The Trojans stayed back in the first half and accomplished coach Chris Lemons’ goal of getting the game to halftime scoreless.

But after a handful of nice saves from Bryce Kinsey to begin the second half, Harmon’s Giovanni Calderon rebounded his own shot and punched home a goal. Just 32 seconds later, Calderon lofted an arcing shot over Kinsey’s head on a breakaway to make it 2-0.

“I always tell the kids that most goals are scored either in the first five minutes, the last five minutes or the five minutes right after another goal,” Lemons said. “I think after that first goal went in, we lost our focus just a little bit.

“But outside of those 40 seconds or so, we played great defensively. We weathered a storm in the first half and started the second half well, their awesome attack just broke through on us.”

Carroll found itself in an early hole in the first semifinal. The Eagles thwarted a handful of Saints scoring attempts before Luke Kutey found the net off an assist from Pedro Arias in the 15th minute.

Carroll kept the deficit at one heading into halftime, but Aquinas struck quickly in the second half. Cole Younger scored in the 44th minute to make it 2-0 before Joseph Skevington capped the scoring with a rocket in the 79th minute.

“They’re a great program,” Skaggs said of Aquinas. “They execute their set pieces like nobody can defend. I felt like we played with them for a lot of the night, we just couldn’t get into their defensive third.”

Aquinas outshot Carroll 16-3 and had five shots on goal to the Eagles’ one.

KC Star Semi-final Write-up

St. Thomas Aquinas, Harmon will play for Class 5A soccer championship

BY RYAN ATKINSON

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

11/07/2014 10:44 PM 

 11/07/2014 11:17 PM

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/high-school/article3656678.html#storylink=cpy

They went about their business in altering styles, but St. Thomas Aquinas and Harmon each won Kansas Class 5A semifinal games on Friday night at the College Boulevard Activities Center.

Aquinas, the defending state champion, got an early goal and rolled to a steady 3-0 win over Bishop Carroll. Harmon, in advancing to the program’s first state title game, was locked in a defensive struggle until a second-half burst gave them a 2-0 win over Andover.

The two Kansas City-area squads meet today at 2 p.m. to decide the state champion.

Aquinas, 18-2, had several chances to take an early lead before Luke Kutey found the back of the net off an assist from Pedro Arias with 26:10 to play in the first half.

“Pedro was making a run down the line and got the ball and kind of cut in and made the angle smaller,” said Kutey, the Saints’ leader scored on the season. “He played it in, and I was able to step in front of the defender and finish it.”

Aquinas coach Craig Ewing was a bit more hyperbolic about it.

“It was one of our best goals of the year, honestly,” he said. “That’s huge to strike first. We missed some opportunities early, but we came through with a great goal.”

Cole Younger’s goal from Blake Heying gave the Saints a 2-0 lead before Joseph Skevington sent a rocket into the net to ice the win with just over 10 minutes remaining.

Harmon 2, Andover 0

Harmon, 18-2, couldn’t break through against a sagging Andover defense for the first 55 minutes of its semifinal, but Giovanni Calderon more than made up for it.

Calderon, after having a couple nice shots stopped by Andover goalkeeper Bryce Kinsey, rebounded his own miss and punched home what turned out to be the game winner in the 56th minute. Just 32 seconds later Calderon lofted an arcing shot over Kinsey’s head on a breakaway to make it 2-0.

“We were surprised they set back defensively as much as they did,” Harmon coach Carlos Olivas said. “I told the boys to be patient and we’d get one to fall and then they’d have to open up out of their shell.”

Now the Hawks, who are in just their second final four ever, face an Aquinas team in search of the school’s 16th state championship.

“We know it will be tough,” Olivas said. “They’re great on their set plays. We have to keep playing our style of soccer and attack. Either way, we’re making history.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/high-school/article3656678.html#storylink=cpy

Game 20: State Semi-finals

7 November vs. Bishop Carroll in State Semis at CBAC (3-0)

We had a nice semi-final win where we were very good defensively the entire match. BWhite named Matthew Brown, our defensive center midfielder, as the BWhite Player of the match. He bridged our defense to our offense and just defended brilliantly all night. 

But the entire back line was fantastic, with Lucas Bartlett playing his first match ever at centerback as a Saint. He and Holland were fantastic together. 

Our first goal of the match was just a great build with Pedro eventually getting forward from the center midfield position and then down the baseline for a great T back to Kutey. Wow. 

We added two dead balls in the second half as every player got into the match, contributing something positive. 

We have the opportunity to complete just a great season tomorrow with a title, but we will have defeat a very good and very skilled Harmon team. 

Go Saints!

STATS:  First Half:  Saints:  Shots: 8 (2) Corners. 0

26:10 Kutey (Arias T's it)

Eagles:  Shots: 3 (1). Corners: 0

Second: Saints: Shots: 8 (3). Corners. 5 (Kutey, Feuerborn 2, Bartlett, Skevington)

37:41 Younger (Heying lofts the free kick for the header)

10:30 Skevington (Nilsen knocks the free kick)

Eagles: Shots: 3(1)  Corners. 0. 

KC Star Write-up

Wichita Eagle Write-up

Game 19: State Quarter Finals vs Mill Valley

4 November vs. Mill Valley at STA in State Quarters (2-0)

We were told Mill Valley was scrappy, and they were.  Moreover, the have some darn good soccer players. They were well organized as well. 

We did have the better opportunities, but this was a close match that ended 2-0.  We cashed an first-half  corner, before getting a second half Cole Younger goal from the field. We had a few other good looks, but this was a very well played, tight match. 

For us we really got some great play from guys who did not start tonight, like Danny Gabriel and Joe Skevington with probably the most impressive play coming from, The BWhite Player of the Game, Pedro Arias. B said the one reason we met at halftime with a 1-0 lead was the defense of Pedro at center midfield.

Heying did nab both assists, playing left back for the match. The touch and angel he put on that second one for Cole was just beautiful soccer.

We now move on to the final four, opening Friday against the exact same foe as last year, Bishop Carroll. It will be a tough match. But if we are going to repeat, we will need to get all hands on deck and grab this one from Carroll. 

STATS:

First Half:

Saints: Shots: 7 (2) Corners: 4 (Geist, Gabriel, Heying, Younger)

18:41 Kutey (Heying bEnds left-footed corner back post)

Jags: Shots: 2(0) Corners: 1

Second Half:

Saints: Shots: 9 (6). Corners. 2 (Heying, Stoecklein)

25:12 Younger (Heying Chips it Forward)

Jags: Shots: 2 (0). Corners. 0