By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural soccer coach Brian Hensyel knows that his Junior Blues face a tough road to the Class 6A state championship, with the other three schools in the semifinals a combined 51-3-3.
Washburn Rural soccer celebrates after Monday's 4-2 win over Liberal in the Class 6A state quarterfinals. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
But with Rural in the midst of a strong late-season run, including a 15-2 scoring advantage over its three playoff wins, Hensyel is confident that the Junior Blues have the firepower to get the job done.
Washburn Rural, now 14-2-3 on the season, earned a fifth straight trip to the 6A Final Four with Monday's 4-2 quarterfinal win over Liberal and will now face 17-1-1 Shawnee Mission East in a 6 p.m. semifinal Wednesday at the Shawnee Mission Soccer Complex.
Washburn Rural will be facing a Shawnee Mission East team that advanced to the state semifinals with a 3-0 quarterfinal win over Mill Valley. Dodge City (19-0-0) will host Shawnee Mission West (15-2-2) in the other semifinal. Dodge City beat Wichita East 5-1 while SM West topped Blue Valley West 3-2 on penalty kicks (4-3).
"Shawnee Mission East has had an awesome season and the other teams that are left, we've seen on and off the last couple of years and we've played pretty much everybody,'' Hensyel said. "On a given night we've got the players to go toe to toe with anybody.
"We can create offensive chances and we've got great goalkeeping and defending. We gave up a couple (Monday), but we've been pretty solid across the board in that area. It's soccer, you never know what's going to happen, but we can be right there with anybody.''
Junior Dylan Willingham scored two goals against Liberal, including one just 5 minutes, 21 seconds into the match, giving the Junior Blues a lead that that they would not relinquish.
Rural also got goals from junior Drew Moore and senior Matthew Houser while Moore also contributed an assist for the Junior Blues, who also got assists from junior Draden Chooncharoen and sophomore Brodye Kocher-Munoz.
The 6A championship and third-place games will be played on Saturday at the Stryker Soccer Complex in Wichita. The third-place game will start at 4 p.m. while the championship game is scheduled for a 4:30 start.
Washburn Rural finished third in 6A last season while Shawnee Mission West was the runnerup and Dodge City finished fourth.
