By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After battling Blue Valley North to an 80-minute scoreless tie in its regular-season finale, Washburn Rural scored early and often in Monday's Class 6A regional opener, with the No. 3 West seed rolling to an 8-0 win over No. 14 Maize at McElroy Field.
Junior Drew Moore scored a pair of goals in Monday's 8-0 Washburn Rural regional soccer win over Maize. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Washburn Rural junior Draden Chooncharoen (middle) is congratulated by his teammates after scoring the first goal in Monday's 8-0 regional win over Maize. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
"Sometimes you kind of forget that these kids sit in school for seven hours a day and then go to practice,'' Rural coach Brian Hensyel said. "It's a long season and I think getting through the regular season, now we have a little renewed energy and we had one of our best practices Saturday morning.
"I think now that was just kind of the renewed focus of, 'Now we're here, now we're in the playoffs.' We know where we are in the bracket, we know who's up next, so I think there was excitement to play tonight.''
The Junior Blues advanced to Thursday's 6 p.m. regional final, where 12-2-3 Rural will host the winner of Tuesday's game between Derby and Lawrence Free State.
Washburn Rural needed only 2 minutes, 34 seconds to score the only goal it would need Monday night, with junior Draden Chooncharoen scoring off an assist from junor Dylan Willingham.
Less than two minutes later it was Willingham that found the back of the net and the Junior Blues were off and running.
Juniors Higgins Hawks and Brandon Hamilton scored to make it a 4-0 game by the 19:13 mark of the opening half and junior Drew Moore added a pair of goals in a span of less than a minute late in the half to give the Junior Blues a commanding 6-0 advantage.
Brandon Hamilton (14), who scored a first-half goal, advances the ball in Monday's 8-0 Washburn Rural regional win over Maize. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Junior Liam Morrison (4) is congratulated after scoring a second-half goal in Monday's 6-0 Washburn Rural regional victory over Maize. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Junior Liam Morrison scored 4:33 into the second half to give Rural a 7-0 lead and the Junior Blues ended the game by way of the eight-goal spread rule on a penalty kick from senior Ryder Nikkel with 11:48 remaining.
Willingham and sophomore Brodye Kocher-Munoz were both credited with two assists in the win while Rural also got assists from seniors Pierce Cannon, Nikkel and Matthew Houser.
"We talked before the game about being unselfish and playing with energy, those two things, and I thought we did a lot of that tonight,'' Hensyel said.
Maize finished its season 5-10-2.
WASHBURN RURAL 8, MAIZE 0
Maize (5-10-2) 0 0 -- 0
Washburn Rural (12-2-3) 6 2 -- 0
Washburn Rural -- Goals: Drew Moore 2, Draden Chooncharoen, Dylan Willingham, Higgins Hawks, Brandon Hamilton, Liam Morrison, Ryder Nikkel. Assists: Dylan Willingham 2, Brodye Kocher-Munoz 2, Pierce Cannon, Ryder Nikkel, Matthew Houser. Shutout: Miles Cook.
