Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009

SMNW ends top-seeded East soccer's season

Second verse, same as the first. Olathe East's boys soccer team lost its regular season finale 1-0 on Oct. 22 against Shawnee Mission Northwest.

The two teams met again Thursday in the Kansas 6A Northeast regional 1 championship at the College Boulevard Activity Center, where the result was the same as the seventh-seeded Cougars ended the top-seeded Hawks' season.

“We lost to them just last week, so we knew we'd have to come out ready to play,” senior forward Ben Coyle said.

For the most part, East, whose only losses this season came against SM Northwest, felt like it was.

“As a team, I think we put together a good performance, but we fell apart for a quick second and that's all it took,” senior goalkeeper Dustin Derks said. “We were very confident. We all thought we just hadn't played a good game last week. We came out and played a good game, but just didn't get a result.”

East, 15-2-1, which knocked SM Northwest out in the 6A quarterfinals last year, nearly pulled ahead in the opening 5 minutes when seniors Taylor Esparza and Justin Hershey came close slipping a ball past Cougars senior goalkeeper Shawn Miles. But the assistant ref flagged the Hawks for offsides.

SM Northwest's best chance in the first came seven minutes later when senior Jon Kankam played a perfect through ball to senior Bobby Hoelting, who clanged his shot off the right post trying to avoid an onrushing Derks.

Still scoreless at halftime, Kankam drew a foul seven minutes into the second half, which led to the game's lone goal when senior Lippi Souza tucked a free kick inside the near post from 35 yards out.

“It was a hell of a shot,” Derks said. “It's as simple as that. I was cheating up a little bit. I thought he was going to cross it and he put it in the top corner.”

The action really picked up in the final 20 minutes, starting with a header Coyle drilled directly at Miles.

Surging forward on a counterattack, Hoelting got in alone on Derks, but came up empty when the Hawks keeper grazed the ball wide of the post. That save kept it a one-goal game, but the equalizer never came.

Coyle forced Miles to go high to tap a shot over the goal in the 75th minute, while junior Kaleb Weston took a promising restart from just outside the box on the left side three minutes later.

Senior Andy Griffin flicked another restart onto goal in the final minute, but again Miles turned East away.

In the final 10 seconds, Coyle sent a cross into the box that both Weston and senior defender Kyle Rogge had a chance to poke into the net.

But it just didn't happen.

“It's very disappointing,” Coyle said. “We had a pretty good season and I was glad to get to play the whole season healthy, but I just wish had gotten the win.”

Brewer endures whirlwind day

Hawks senior Max Brewer, a midfielder whose career was put on hold because of a spinal issue last week, got a second opinion and was medically cleared to return earlier Thursday.

“It's been a roller coaster,” Brewer said. “I had something ripped from me that I'd never had ripped away before. I'd never had an injury before, so I'd never experienced anything like that.”

The roller coaster, of course, didn't stop when he suddenly got soccer back as the season just as quickly came to an end.

“It's been a tough, tough journey,” Brewer said. “I wasn't expecting to play when I woke up today, but then I got the call and that's all I could think about.”

SM NORTHWEST 1, OLATHE EAST 0

SM Northwest (Lippi Souza; shutout by Shawn Miles). Records: SMNW 11-7-0, OE 15-2-1.

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