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By TODD FERTIG

TopSports.news

The Shawnee Heights soccer team took another step toward accomplishing its goals with a 3-0 defeat of Seaman at Bettis Family Sports Complex Tuesday.

Shawnee Heights senior Jose Curvelo-Montenegro (20) scores one of his two goals in Tuesday's 3-0 UKC win over Seaman. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Shawnee Heights senior Jose Curvelo-Montenegro (20) is congratulated after scoring a goal in Tuesday's 3-0 UKC win over Seaman. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Since suffering a loss to Washburn Rural in the season opener, the T-Birds have reeled off an eight-game win streak that finds them at the top of the Class 5A standings.

Senior Jose Curvelo-Montenegro received a pass from Camden Granado to punch home the first score of the night 15 minutes into the contest.

Curvelo-Montenegro added an insurance goal just two minutes into the second period on an assist from Sheldon Pokphanh. The T-Birds got a third tally on a corner kick by Thomas Aragon that Nick Prater put in the net.

“I was glad to get two goals after feeling like I’ve been trying. I finally had it,” Curvelo-Montenegro said. “I hope to keep scoring to help the team.”

Coach Nic Simons said Curvelo-Montenegro stepped up when the team needed another scorer to emerge.

“What I think is great about our team is, tonight Jose was able to step in and fill a role when we were having a tough night at the office for some of our guys that do a lot of our scoring,” Simons said. “Jose has been knocking at the door. He’s had a goal here, a goal there, but I think this was the kind of game he needed to gain confidence.

“Jose is a guy that is a little bit flashy. He can get into the minds of the opposing team. Teams have to think about him, and that’s one more weapon that makes us really dangerous this season.”

Shawnee Heights has claimed every United Kansas Conference championship but one since it joined the league. It can add another trophy to the case Thursday with a win at Leavenworth. Simons said winning Thursday will also keep the T-Birds in position for the top seed come playoff time.

“Right now, we’re atop the rankings of the 5A East, which has been our goal,” Simons said. “We want to host all the way to state. There are a lot of good teams out there and we want to think of ourselves as one of those upper-echelon-type teams.”

“It’s great to be 8-1,” Curvelo-Montenegro said. “I’m really happy with this win. We want to keep moving forward and get high up in the rankings.”

By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Washburn Rural soccer coach Brian Hensyel had several reasons to be concerned entering Tuesday's non-league game against Kapaun Mt. Carmel.

Washburn Rural senior Liam Morrison (24) scored Tuesday's first goal in a 2-0 non-league home win over Kapaun Mt. Carmel. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]

Washburn Rural senior Liam Morrison (24) celebrates his goal in Tuesday's 2-0 non-league home win over Kapaun Mt. Carmel. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]

First of all, Rural was facing a good Crusader team that had won six straight games.

Secondly, the Junior Blues were coming off a road trip to Iowa, where they played three hotly-contested games in three days.

And Washburn Rural would also face Kapaun without two of its top players, senior leading scorer Dylan Willingham and juior Brodye Kocher-Munoz.

But Rural put all of Hensyel's concerns to rest with one of its best performances of the season en route to a 2-0 shutout over the Crusaders at McElroy Field.

"This is as good of a win as we've had all season and all of those things add in,'' Hensyel said. "Obviously, we just played Thursday, Friday, Saturday against high-level competition and yesterday was pretty much a non-practice day to be honest. We were just trying to rest up.

"And with Dylan out with his ankle and a guy out with a redcard, you're down your two starting forwards, so we had to play with a more defensive emphasis in the second half. We thought we could score off set plays and we did, so we got the lead and then we were able to be strong defensively and our defense was really good.''

Senior Liam Morrison scored the only goal the Junior Blues would need at the 29:15 mark of the first half off a free kick assist from senior Brandon Hamilton.

Washburn Rural senior Higgins Hawks (21) scored Rural's second goal in Tuesday's 2-0 non-league home win over Kapaun Mt. Carmel. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]

Rural, now 8-1-1, added its final goal of the night with 16:38 remaining in the opening half when senior Higgins Hawks scored off an assist from senior Brady Loeffler.

Senior Miles Cook (99) picked up the shutout in goal in Washburn Rural's 2-0 non-league home win over Kapaun Mt. Carmel. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]

The Junior Blues were unable to find the back of the net the remainder of the game, but Rural's defense was able to keep 7-3-0 Kapaun off the scoreboard as senior Miles Cook registered the shutout in goal.