St. Thomas Aquinas gets fast start in Kansas 5A semifinal soccer victory
The best way to shake off any jitters caused by trying to repeat is to score early.
St. Thomas Aquinas, the two-time defending Kansas 5A boys’ soccer champions, did exactly that in its 4-1 semifinal victory over Andover on Friday evening at Hummer Sports Park.
Before a minute clicked off the clock, sophomore midfielder Curtis Whigham headed one in from 5 feet out, giving Aquinas a 1-0 lead 47 seconds into the first half.
“It was very electrifying,” Whigham said. “The first goal set the tone for the whole game. It felt good.”
The Saints, 18-2, will play for their third straight state soccer title at 2 p.m. Saturday against Salina South. Aquinas will be seeking its 17th state title.
“We know what we have to do going into tomorrow,” Whigham said. “As long as we play our game, we will get the win.”
The Saints continued to put pressure on Andover junior goalkeeper Michael Anaya throughout the first half. A shot by Aquinas senior midfielder Tyler Stoecklein barely went high over the net 11 minutes later.
Aquinas broke through with its second goal with 19:47 remaining in the first half on a long throw in by senior midfielder Lucas Bartlett. There was a scramble in the box for control of the ball. It finally got on the foot of senior forward Hunter Brown, and he finished for the second goal.
Stoecklein’s goal with 35:12 left in the second half gave the Saints a 3-0 lead and rendered a goal by Andover 7 minutes later virtually meaningless.
“We have a lot of good players, so getting a lot of contributions from different guys was important,” said Aquinas coach Craig Ewing on having four different players score.
Salina South 3, Blue Valley Southwest 1
In the first 10 minutes, Blue Valley Southwest controlled the ball on the offensive end but failed to take advantage of a couple of scoring opportunities, and that hurt the Timberwolves.
Salina South dominated the action the last 25 minutes of the first half, scoring three goals, and that carried the Cougars to a 3-1 victory in a Kansas 5A boys soccer semifinal.
“The first half was kind of a strange game because I thought the first 15 to 20 minutes we were all over them and then they got a goal on a counter attack,” BV Southwest coach Jason Pendleton said. “They got three opportunities and got three goals out of it, and we created a few good opportunities and got nothing out of it.”
Those missed chances put BV Southwest, 15-5, in Saturday’s third-place game, which starts at noon.
Salina South, 18-2, will play for its first state soccer title.
The Cougars’ first step to the title game occurred with 25:32 left in the first half, when junior David Palacios received a pass in the box from senior Jose Escobedo and scored. Four minutes later, Salina South solidified its lead on a goal by Escobedo.
BV Southwest settled down defensively over the next 15 minutes. But with 4:20 left in the first half, Palacios scored his second goal, giving the Cougars an insurmountable lead.
BV Southwest dominated the action in the second half, but a couple of nice saves by Salina South goalkeeper Ethan Bandre prevented the Timberwolves from scoring until senior Jacob Weaver nailed a penalty kick with 6:50 remaining.
“We were resilient and competed and did all those things, which is what you want your team to do,” Pendleton said. “But we left a few goals out there. We hit a crossbar. We had two wide-open ones we missed in the last 15 minutes. It was frustrating because I felt we did enough to score enough goals to put us in position to win.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 11:14 PM with the headline "St. Thomas Aquinas gets fast start in Kansas 5A semifinal soccer victory."