By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
The Washburn Rural girls soccer team bounced back from a heartbreaking semifinal loss Friday to blank Maize 3-0 for third place in the Class 6A state tournament Saturday at Hummer Sports Park.
Washburn Rural soccer accepts its Class 6A third-place trophy after Saturday's 3-0 win over Maize. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Washburn Rural poses for a team picture after finishing third in Class 6A Saturday at Hummer Sports Park. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Kate Hinck ruled the day, putting all three goals in the net for Washburn Rural. The junior raised her goal total to 28 on the season, second best in school history.
Placing third for the second consecutive season was a disappointing outcome for a team still seeking its first title.
“We’ve been in the Final Four a bunch of times. We’ve played (the consolation) game a number of times,” said Washburn Rural coach Brian Hensyel. “This was hard because our goal was to be the state champions. We didn’t quite get there.”
The Junior Blues regrouped with a strategy for Saturday.
“You have to rally for the second day,” Hensyel said. “We decided two things. We were just going to put all our players on the field today throughout the game. We have a lot of depth, so we used the whole roster today.
“But the second part was, we have a great group of girls, so I wasn’t worried about whether they would be ready to play or not. They wanted to finish with a win. It’s not quite what we wanted this weekend, but a great ending to the season.”
Junior Kate Hinck scored all three goals Saturday in Washburn Rural's 3-0 win over Maize in the Class 6A third-place game. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Washburn Rural junior Kate Hinck finished her season with 28 goals after Saturday's hat trick against Maize in a 3-0 win. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Using her speed and ball-handling skills, Hinck navigated her way through the Maize defense to two first-half goals. Early in the second half, she took a pass near the goal and punched a shot through traffic past the Maize goalkeeper.
“She’s crazy great,” Hensyel said. “She’s a go-to player. She made it happen today.”
“Today was really fun because this was our last time to play together as a team with the seniors,” Hinck said. “It was just good to win because we had a tough game last night.”
In the semifinal contest Friday night, Washburn Rural went toe-to-toe with Blue Valley Northwest for two halves plus an overtime period. The Huskies finally broke the scoreless tie late in the second overtime.
“A lot of it was fatigue,” Hensyel said of the defeat. “You’re at the end of a long game. They played a ball forward. It’s one of our girls versus them. Their girl won it, she got in the box and made a nice shot.
“(Blue Valley Northwest) had many opportunities throughout the game to score. We had a breakaway that we could have scored. When you get to that point in the game, there have been chances for both teams. At the end of the day, they had a little bit more. Blue Valley Northwest was the harder working team who found a way to get the win.”
“We were so close,” Hinck said. “I think the overtimes got us. We were so tired, but we worked our butts off. It was heartbreaking.
“We realized that we really wanted to end on a good note. It sucks losing in the semifinals. We felt like this year was supposed to be our year. I’m proud that we bounced back and did this.”
Following the Junior Blues’ victory Saturday, Blue Valley Northwest would lose to Blue Valley West in the championship. The coach of the losing team said fatigue from the grueling match with Washburn Rural contributed to her team’s defeat.
Washburn Rural finished the season 17-4-0. The Junior Blues regular-season losses were to Olathe Northwest, Blue Valley North and Blue Valley West.
“We’re going to keep coming,” Hensyel said. “I keep telling our girls that Washburn Rural girls soccer is going to win a state title someday, and one year will be ‘someday.’
“I think we’ve created one of the best girls soccer programs in Kansas that keeps getting to this point over and over again. We’re right there with the top three or four teams from Kansas City. But right now, maybe we’re just a slight notch behind, because each year it’s 1-0, it’s overtime, and we just can’t quite get there.”
Third place
WASHBURN RURAL 3, MAIZE 0
Maize (14-6-1) 0 0 — 0
Washburn Rural (17-4-0) 2 1 — 3
Washburn Rural — Goals: Hinck 3. Assists: Legg 2, Higgs. Shutout: Flood, Lemke, Davin.
