STA Boys Soccer 2020

 Game 21: (15-3-3) 7 November at Spring Hill vs. Maize  (8-1) When you get to play the twenty-first game, you know that means only one of two things—you are playing for it all in the State Championship or you are playing for 3rd. This group has brought the Saints back home to the State finals to take on a very good Maize team. We were playing for Boys' Soccer's 17th state title (quite a drought as the last one we won was In 2014), and we were playing for Saint Thomas Aquinas's 115th.  And oh my did we show up for this one. Mitchell called tails, and the boys took it from there. It was 2-0 after 3 minutes. We never looked back as it was 6-0 at halftime against a team that never gave up more than 3 all year during a full game. Now granted Maize had played 100 minutes the night before, and we had breezed through at 6-0, getting to sit some starters during a lot of the second half. I just think when a team is blessed with a senior class that every other kid wants to win for, ...

Game 20: (14-3-3) 6 November at Spring Hill vs. Shawnee Heights (6-0) The Moms were up early this morning getting the school entrance ready for all arrivals. Check it out! We came into the semis with virtually the same record as Shawnee Heights out of Topeka. We were hoping that our demanding schedule would create some separation.  The match was tight for a bit, but once we connected on Kitts to Farrar corner, everyone relaxed, and a minute later we scored again. We built a 4-0 lead by halftime, and by early second half, it was 6-0.  So, everyone got to play quite a bit and a lot of our never-come-out guys got 20-30 minutes rest. So hopefully that will pay some dividends for tomorrow.  One of the things that B came up with that really got our guys going tonight I think were all of the video posts from so many Aquinas legends. Lee, Henning, Bartlett, DiCarlo, Gress . . . and on and on (15 powerful messages) left these powerful remarks that I know inspired our guys so much....

Game 19: (13-3-3) 3 November at HOME vs. Mill Valley (1-0) We started our two-game replay tour tonight as we took on Mill Valley who we played early in the season (the night of the Chiefs Home Opener) in a good match that ended 2-0, us. Mill Valley has some nice wins this season like its win over # 2-in-the-State, Olathe West. But that tour took a detour when Bishop Carroll was upset tonight by Andover Central. It took forever to score, and we probably scored in the least likely way. The Mill Valley keeper played well all night except that one late second-half play on the corner kick. We were attacking all night earning corner after corner. All of our free kicks were pretty good chances. As I said, their keeper played very well.  Our backline was phenomenal again. There were very few even shots, let alone good chances. Nick Garcia came in early in the second half, allowing Mitchell to move upfield. I thought from that point on we spent almost all of the time on our side of the fiel...

Game 18: (12-3-3) 30 October at Spring Hill at 4:00 in Regional Final (1-0) Today our 18-straight regional streak was on the line (28 overall). We met a senior-heavy (10) Spring Hill team that featured a former Sporting Junior in the middle of the field and several other very good players. And we got a sneak preview of the field where the Final 4 will take place.  Somehow we made it out of Dodge, I mean Spring Hill, with a win. Spring Hill very effectively put numbers behind the ball, and for the first half, we kept attacking down the middle—so not likely to score, and we did not. In the second half, we did go wide a lot more, creating several very good opportunities that we failed to dummy, where we had two guys run into one another, or where we missed wide.  The goal was a thing of beauty, though. Zayveon came up from left back to drop a long diagonal to the back post for Liam Ryan’s first varsity goal. The ball had started with Liam on the left side from a pass from Welch b...

Game 17 (11-3-3) 28 October at Home vs. (7-3-0) Blue Valley Southwest (3-1) CoVID (geographic seeding) probably brought the most improbable first-round match-up in the history of the Kansas playoffs—the two teams who most soccer pundits would predict would play in the State Finals. But honestly, both teams were just happy to have the opportunity to play at all during this pandemic when the season looked plenty iffy for quite some time.  I am not sure we have played any better this season than we played tonight. We got out of the gate quickly scoring 3 goals in the first 20 minutes—now, granted only two of them were allowed, but we scored 3 legit goals in 20 minutes. I give Coach Jones an "A" for coaching as I have never seen a goal taken off the board for a supposed foul that took place right in front of the center ref some 40 seconds before the goal and before the pass that would have been the assist was made, called back after the same center ref signaled goal and we were l...

  EKL Wins Losses Ties Blue Valley West             5              0         2 0.857 Blue Valley Northwest             5              1          1 0.786 Blue Valley Southwest 5 2 0 0.714 Saint Thomas Aquinas 3             3          1 0.500 Blue Valley              3             3          1 0.500 Bishop Miege              1             4          2 0.286 St. James Academy              1             5          1 0.214 Blue Valley North               1 ...