By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
No. 3 West seed Washburn Rural took control of Thursday's Class 6A regional soccer final with two goals in the opening seven minutes on the way to a 3-0 win over No. 11 Free State at McElroy Field.
Washburn Rural soccer celebrates its Class 6A regional championship after Thursday's 3-0 win over Free State. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Senior Matthew Houser (9) scored two goals in the first seven minutes to power Washburn Rural to a 3-0 win over Free State in Thursday's Class 6A regional final. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Senior Matthew Houser scored twice within a span of a minute and 14 seconds at the 34:17 and 33:03 mark of the first half and junior Brody Grogan added a final goal with 22:56 left in the second half as the 13-2-3 Junior Blues advanced to next Monday's state quarterfinals.
Sophomore Brodye Kocher-Munoz was credited with a pair of assists for the Junior Blues while junior Miles Cook picked up the shutout in goal as the Junior Blues dominated the game from start to finish.
Rural outscored its two regional foes by an 11-0 margin after opening postseason with an 8-0 win over Maize on Monday.
"I just told them, I thought our two performances this week are some of the best stuff we've done all year and that's obviouly what you want,'' Washburn Rural coach Brian Hensyel said. "All the little things we've been talking about kind of came to fruition the first 10 minutes. We've always been a set play team and we ran everything perfect (early). We earned four corners in the first five minutes and scored on a couple and really ran them right against a good team and a good goalkeeper (Yusef Iskandrani).
"A good start. If you get a lead, any anxiety you have you feel like you can kind of take a deep breath and we were able to relax. They were a good team, that was a good performance for us.''
Free State, which upset No. 6 West seed Derby 2-0 to reach the regional final, ended its season with an 8-8-1 record.
Washburn Rural will be at home next Monday to host Liberal (13-4-1) in a quarterfinal contest, with Liberal advancing with a 2-0 win over Wichita Northwest. Dodge City (18-0-0) will host Wichita East (11-7-0) in the other West quarterfinal.
On the East side, Shawnee Mission East (16-1-1) will host Mill Valley (9-8-0) and SM West (14-2-2) will host Blue Valley West (12-4-1) in quarterfinal contests.
WASHBURN RURAL 3, FREE STATE 0
Free State (8-8-1) 0 0 -- 0
Washburn Rural (13-2-3) 2 1 -- 3
Washburn Rural -- Goals: Matthew Houser 2, Brody Grogan. Assists: Brodye Kocher-Munoz 2. Shutout: Miles Cook.
