TOPEKA — When the postseason comes along, the best teams are led by their seniors. While that has certainly been the case with Washburn Rural boys soccer, they have another advantage, unlike most squads: The Junior Blues’ sophomores are garnering minutes and executing at a high level.
Washburn Rural’s season continues after one of their sophomores made the critical play on Tuesday night. Draden Chooncharoen scored the game-winning goal against Garden City in the Class 6A state quarterfinals in extra time to clinch a 2-1 victory and punch their ticket to Friday’s state semifinal.
Chooncharoen sprinted toward the near post as senior Devin Rutschmann took the ball down the left wing. Rutschmann sent a low cross near the six-yard line. Chooncharoen wiggled his way in front of the Garden City defender and earned the crucial touch which sent the ball past the keeper. Chooncharoen was mobbed and the entire Washburn Rural roster dog-piled him.
“It was cool, but I couldn’t breathe after a good amount of people fell on me,” Chooncharoen smiled. “Coach Hensyl has always talked about how we have to attack the end line, that is where most of our goals come from. We knew when we needed a goal, that is where we had to go.”
The Junior Blues are starting five sophomores. Andrew Moore, Brandon Hamilton, Dylan Willingham, Liam Morrison and Chooncharoen are all big pieces to head coach Brian Hensyel’s plans. They may not have the most experience when it comes to this tournament, but their growth from the summer to now has been an important part of the team’s success.
“Five sophomores start, that doesn’t happen here very often,” Hensyl said. “The thing that elevates this team is when you have a great senior class and you have good young talent to pair it with it. It is pretty awesome and those five sophomores have been huge.”
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Overall, it was a tough evening for Washburn Rural. Garden City did a solid job of filling the middle of the field and forcing the Junior Blues to play direct football. Washburn Rural often tries to control the game with its feet and connecting passes to unlock the opposing defense.
The Buffaloes did not allow for that to happen, and that forced the Junior Blues to work the wings. That’s where Chooncharoen’s game-winning goal came from; it was also how the Junior Blues scored their first goal.
Rutschmann was involved on the right wing and drilled another low cross to the middle of the box. Lawsen Lobatos-Dick stopped his run and came to the cross which he drilled into the back of the net to give Washburn Rural the 1-0 lead in the 32nd minute.
The Junior Blues took the lead into halftime, but it was Garden City who came out for the second half on a mission. The Buffaloes equalized in the 62nd minute when Joshua Negron nailed a shot from 30 yards out, which beat Washburn Rural’s Ehtan Uhlrig in goal.
“There were two factors today, we may have gotten a little too overconfident, looking ahead to the weekend. I don’t think I did a good enough job preparing them for how Garden City was going to play against us,” Hensyl said. “We are going to have to be awesome this weekend.”
Even when a team doesn’t have their best stuff, they figure out ways to grind out a victory. Washburn Rural did that to set itself up with a date in the state semifinals against Mission West (14-3-2) at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Hummer Sports Park.
“This gives us a chance to win, just being there makes us very confident,” Chooncharoen said about Friday’s match.
Shawnee Heights eliminated
Shawnee Heights faced Blue Valley Southwest in the Class 5A State Quarterfinal. The Wolfpack downed the Thunderbirds 6-2 as Shawnee Heights’ season came to a close on Tuesday night. Shawnee Heights finished 10-8-1.
Liam Keating covers high school sports for The Topeka Capital-Journal. You can reach him at [email protected]
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