By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
It only took Washburn Rural’s girls soccer team one half to advance to the Class 6A regional championship after its 10-0 mercy-rule victory over Wichita South in the opening round of postseason play at McElroy Field.
Washburn Rural sophomore Kate Hinck scored a pair of goals in Tuesday's 10-0 Class 6A regional romp past Wichita South. [Photo by Isaac Deer/TSN]
Senior captain Mackinly Rohn was credited with three assists in Tuesday's 10-0 Class 6A regional win over Wichita South. [Photo by Isaac Deer/TSN]
It was an easy day at the office for the Junior Blues. It was expected that Washburn Rural (12-4-1) would handle a slumping Wichita South (2-13-0) squad on Tuesday night, but how it handled its business so quickly was noteworthy.
Washburn Rural deserved its high No. 3 seed in its regional and the tune-up in the opening round. With the win, the Junior Blues were able to rest some starters and get some quality minutes for players that might need to step up later in the postseason.
“We always want to get that high seed and play games at home,” Washburn Rural coach Brian Hensyel said. “We earned ourselves a game today that we could manage pretty easily, but that’s because we had the great season that we did.
“With other teams playing extremely difficult games, we should be thankful that we got a good matchup in the first round.”
With the regular season behind them, the Junior Blues have a bigger picture in mind. Right now, the main focus for Washburn Rural is to win its next game against Derby so that they’re right back where they were a year ago -- in the 6A state quarterfinals.
“We just need to have a good mindset,” Hensyel said. “We need to stay focused. We have seniors that are graduating and a lot of distractions around right now. So we need to stay focused on our task.
“We wanted to be one of sixteen teams left after today. On Thursday, we want to be one of eight teams left. That’s the goal, and it doesn’t matter how it gets done. We need to have a good practice tomorrow so we can have a good night on Thursday.”
Eight different players ended up with at least one goal, while six players recorded at least one assist in the dominating win over Wichita South.
Senior Maya Hoge and sophomore Kate Hinck each had two goals. Mackinly Rohn, Destiny Higgs, Delaney Hill, Peyton Merrick, Savannah Tuffley and Emma Wong were the other Junior Blues that placed the ball in the back of the net.
Washburn Rural has had a diverse scoring attack the entire 2023 campaign, contributing to the squad’s successful season.
“We just continue to have fun out there,” Rohn said. “I think our chemistry as a team makes us strong. We all get along really well, and we love playing together. Our chemistry shows on the field, and we need to keep going. Today was a lighthearted game, but we will come out Thursday focused and ready to play.”
Washburn Rural’s energetic pace at home has been a big boost for the club this season. At home, Washburn Rural has a 9-0-1 record and has outscored the opposition on its home turf 40-1 this season.
“We showed how hard we could play after the (Seaman) game, and that really helped us with our confidence, as you saw today,” Washburn Rural senior goalie Hailey Beck said. “Going forward today, we want to show teams that we will give it our all. We have a great bond on and off the field which has helped how well we’ve played this year.”
Beck and junior goalkeeper Mackenzie Flood provided a combined clean sheet in the shutout against Wichita South.
With Beck’s success this season and a win in hand, Hensyel granted Beck’s wish to play on the field. Although Beck didn’t score a goal, she finally fulfilled her season-long dream of playing offense.
“I’ve been asking (Hensyel) to let me play offense the entire season,” Beck said. “I finally got my chance to go and score a goal, and it didn’t happen. It was a big-time reality check of why I am a goalie, not a field player. I grabbed a jersey from one of our injured players; she gave it to me, and bam, I was out there.”
“They were triple-teaming her, so it was pretty hard,” Rohn said.
Washburn Rural will host Derby (10-6-1) for the regional championship on Thursday night at 6 p.m.
WASHBURN RURAL 10, WICHITA SOUTH 0
Wichita South (2-13-0) 0 -- 0
Washburn Rural (12-4-1) 10 -- 10
Washburn Rural -- Goals: Hoge 2, Hinck 2, Hill, Higgs, Merrick, S. Tuffley, Wong, Rohn. Assists: Rohn 3, Hinck 2, Hill, B. Tuffley, S. Tuffley, Hoge. Shutout: Beck, Flood.
