Blue Valley Northwest wins third consecutive Kansas 6A soccer championship

Washburn Rural was able to keep Blue Valley Northwest standout Cece Kizer relatively quiet on Saturday afternoon.

It didn’t matter.

The Huskies kept Rural on its heels with a barrage of shots and won 2-1 for their third consecutive Kansas 6A state championship and fourth in five years.

“This was probably one of the hardest achievements I’ve been around in my career,” Blue Valley Northwest coach Rick Pribyl said. “To do it twice is tough. Three in a row in 6A for a public school is really tough. It’s incredible. It’s all because of the girls.”

Kizer entered the day with 33 goals on the season – an average of 1.7 per game – but she helped others excel in the title match.

In the 21st minute, Kizer corralled a corner and found an open Katie Sullivan, who sent in a left-footed rock for a 1-0 lead. It was just the second goal of the season for Sullivan, a middle defender.

“Cece laid it off for me and it somehow found the back of the net,” Sullivan said. “It was pretty indescribable. I started jumping up and down like a crazy person.”

Samantha Arch pushed the lead to 2-0 when she punched in a shot off a rebound in the 52nd minute.

Rural didn’t make any noise until Mykaela Hagen found the ball after a header was saved by Kennedy Coffelt and was able to score, making it 2-1 in the 67th minute.

The Junior Blues didn’t get many chances to tie it in the final 13 minutes as the interior midfield of Arch, Karley Kucera and Lauren Reeder clamped down for BV Northwest.

Northwest unleashed 16 shots – 11 on goal – and never gave the Junior Blues a chance to mount substantial attacks of their own.

“Our plan, as always, was to keep possession,” Pribyl said. “To be honest, we wanted a few more goals so it wouldn’t be so tight, but that’s what you expect in the state finals.”

Rural managed just five shots, all of which were on goal. Kucera saved four of those shots, including a high laser that she was able to punch over the crossbar with just over 2 minutes left in the first half.

“It feels so great to win this and keep the streak going,” Sullivan said. “We have 11 seniors and we’re great friends and we’ve worked so hard to get here. This is special.”

The Huskies won the 2011 title before starting their three-year streak in 2013.

SM West falls in third-place match

Maize tied Shawnee Mission West late in the first half and then scored three times in the second for a 4-1 win in the third-place match.

SM West, which entered the weekend with an 11-match unbeaten streak, finished the season 14-6-1.

The Vikings took an early lead when Morgan Mauk’s low shot ricocheted in off the left post in the ninth minute. Neither team mounted much of a threat until just over a minute remained in the first half, when Paige Swanson’s goal tied the match.

The Eagles then got three quick shots on goal in the second half before Swanson found her way out of a scrum in the goal box and scored, giving Maize a 2-1 lead. Two more goals iced the win for the Eagles.

Maize outshot the Vikings 15-9, including 9-6 in the second half, and doubled SM West’s five shots on goal.

This story was originally published May 30, 2015 at 8:29 PM with the headline "Blue Valley Northwest wins third consecutive Kansas 6A soccer championship."