The Lawrence Free State defense had its hands and feet full with the aggressive Topeka Washburn Rural offense during Saturday&rsquo;s Kansas 6A soccer championship match. </p><p>The Firebirds battled wave after wave of the Junior Blues&rsquo; relentless attack, but on three occasions Washburn Rural got through to claim a 3-0 victory and its first state championship since 2002. </p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve said all year our defense is what carries us,&rdquo; Washburn coach Brian Hensyel said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve only given up seven (goals) all year, never more than one in any game. We feel like if we get two (goals) our chances of winning are about 90 percent. If we go up three, we feel like it&rsquo;s over.&rdquo;</p><p>Washburn Rural scored all three of its goals in the first half.</p><p>Following a throw-in during the ninth minute of play, Eric Semjenow accepted a high hop off his forehead and elevated it over the fingertips of Free State goalkeeper Jackson McLure. Semjenow got past McLure again just 18 minutes later. After the Firebirds failed to clear a Junior Blues throw-in, Semjenow charged a pass from Jeremiah Ben Sullivan and hammered the ball into the net.</p><p>Already trailing 2-0, Free State&rsquo;s deficit went from deep to insurmountable with a trickling goal scored by Washburn Rural&rsquo;s Joey Welch in the 36th minute.</p><p>&ldquo;I thought the first five minutes we played pretty well,&rdquo; Free State coach Jason Pendleton said. &ldquo;Then we gave up what I thought was a pretty cheap goal. They&rsquo;re so big and strong and athletic. They just kind of imposed their athletic will on us and took us out of what we wanted to do. If you spot them three goals, it&rsquo;s going to be very, very difficult to get back into it.&rdquo;</p><p>Unfortunately for the Firebirds, 16-5, they weren&rsquo;t able to get back into it. The Junior Blues, 20-1, were content to ride their defense to victory in the second half.</p><p>Pendleton said the loss was hard for his players to take, but that he suspects in time they would grow to appreciate all they had accomplished.</p><p>&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve got to look at the sum of our season,&rdquo; Pendleton said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve won three more games than any team in school history and got to the state finals. That&rsquo;s for a group that was probably picked to finish below .500 in the Sunflower League. So I&rsquo;m proud of the accomplishments we&rsquo;ve made this season.&rdquo;</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">SM Northwest third</span></strong></p><p>Shawnee Mission Northwest spent most of the Kansas 6A third-place match circling around the Dodge City goal. The Cougars built an early lead and came away with a 2-0 victory.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just happy we ended on a win for our 10 seniors,&rdquo; SM Northwest coach Todd Boren said. &ldquo;We battled a long way to get here. We beat a lot of good teams to get here, and it&rsquo;s just nice to go out on a good note.&rdquo;SM Northwest jumped out front in the first half with goals from sophomore David Fancher and Jens Epping. Fancher thumped a low kick just inside the left post of the Dodge City goal during the 14th minute. Epping, a senior, chipped a shot through two Red Demons defenders 20 minutes later.</p><p>Eppings&rsquo; goal gave the Cougars, 13-8, the opportunity to play a much more relaxed second half.</p><p>Seniors Shawn Miles and Kyle McGahee shared time at goal as SM Northwest posted its 10th shutout of the season.