STA Boys Soccer 2023

Game 11: 5-6-0 30 September at 10:00 AM vs. Springfield Glendale at Kickapoo on turf (3-2, OT) EKL Standings 2023 STATS Instant Karma's coming to get you (John Lennon); might as well make it good Karma (Craig Ewing) The boys finished the weekend off in style with one-for-the-books finish against a very good Springfield Glendale team.  With just over 2 minutes to go, the Beast found Liam just outside the box. Liam took a great touch to push himself towards goal, drawing a PK. With both Laws and Coop out for the match, we brought Bobby up for the PK. The goalkeeper saved LeBourveau’s put back when Bobby’s ball came off the post, but not the hustle slide-shot by Janeway.  We headed to overtime. We almost scored 30 seconds in with a long direct kick that Bissen headed back across for a Ryan header that somehow was saved. It did not matter, as Spencer Ragan found Jayden Janeway for the game winner 6 minutes later on the long, ground diagonal switch that sent Janweay once agin to go...

Game 10: 4-6 29 September vs. Nixa in the second round of the Kickapoo tourney at Kickapoo (3-2) EKL Standings 2023 STATS We nabbed not only a win, missing four starters, but we also played a match showing respect for the officials, the program and our opponents.  Liam Ryan scored the second fastest goal in Saint Thomas Aquinas' long soccer history as Bissen to LeBourveau to Ryan got us to goal in 12 seconds, 12.  We continued to build our lead during the first half to 3-0, on two great assists from Omar Sarmiento, the Man of the Match. Omar followed up his own left-sided corner with a ball back into the box for a Siebert goal.  Just before half, we were countered on our own throw-in, something we would see repeated in the second half to tighten the match to a one-goal match. Since we were coming off plenty of practice from last night at burning time off the clock, we did hold court for the rest of the half. Good performance. STATS: First Half: STA: Shots: 9 (6) Corners: ...

Game 9: 3-6 28 September vs. Kickapoo at Kickapoo in first match of tourney (3-3 2 OT's), lost in shootout, 3-0) EKL Standings 2023 STATS We began the Kickapoo tourney by taking one step forward and two steps backwards. Of all the unusual situations we have been in this year, we were still able to find one we had not quite experienced yet. For much of this match we played 8 on 11, yes, 8 on 11. We, somehow, kept the match knotted at 3 through most of the second half and through both overtimes. That is remarkable, really; that is a big positive, a step forward. We, however, had gotten an early red card in the first half for dissent, and more dissent—a step backward.  Kickapoo had earned a PK countering our early corner on a handball in the box. A few minutes later Kickapoo hit a long diagonal over our back line to create  a one-on-one with our keeper to make it 2-0 them.  We fought back to even the score a few minutes past the midway point of the half.  And, we got ou...

Game 8: 3-5 26 September vs. BV North at BV DAC (1-0) EKL Standings 2023 STATS We were once again down one centerback to begin our stretch of 5 straight matches on grass.  Honestly we are getting used to about anything. Ken Fox mentioned the other day "whatever 'they' want to throw at you, you have probably been through it." Going into this season we felt we had to have one of the premiere defenses in the area. Tonight, even without Cooper, we flashed a lot of that bling. John had a particularly good match at centerback with Miles doing an admirable job filling in for Cooper. And Noah Morgan could not have played much better at right back in the first half. Kluck and Kitts took over for him second half with Bobby and Hunter handling left back for the match. With Beast and Befort winning so many balls in the middle of the field, North just did not get many opportunities. And we got solid play from 3 different keepers.  George, Mav and Parker all played well in the net....

Game 7: (2-5-0) 19 September vs. Bishop Miege at Saint Thomas Aquinas (1-2 2OT)  EKL Standings 2023 STATS We had a difficult match tonight against perennial 4A State Champ, Bishop Miege. And Miege had been cooking in the EKL already with wins over Blue Valley and BV North, North's being an 8-0 crushing. We also played without starting centerback, senior, John Winerich, and our starting "10," junior Spencer Ragan. We did welcome back, defensive center midfielder, Alex Bissen who has been battling an illness for a couple of weeks.  And I would say on the defensive side of the ball we were pretty solid with the exception of the winning goal, but our attack was pretty AWOL. We continued to give the ball away in the front third of the field and then have to race back to defend.  Even though we continue to take too many touches before we release the ball, we did lead 1-0 at the half, feeling pretty good about the defensive side of the ball. Fairly early in the second half we al...

Game 6: (2-4) 14 September vs. Southwest at Saint Thomas Aquinas (2-3) EKL Standings 2023 STATS Game number six gave us a pretty good reading of where we are. Our record is not great, but we have been playing well overall, needing to put some numbers in the victory column. Now, we did not move one to the victory column, but we played well once again, sort of. Southwest came in second in the EKL and one of the teams who can win a 5A state championship. We played without one of our starting "6's," and we were not able to use our normal rotation because of a few other disciplinary circumstances. But we accounted for all that pretty well, bringing up Owen Kitts from JV, along with Noah Morgan and Jacob Zinkus, and starting Abi Yibekal at the "10."  Adi, Jacob and Noah gave us good minutes, and Owen was a major contributor.   We ended up losing the match with 33 seconds left on the clock.  The T-wolves finished their second PK of the night as we battled the last 10 m...

Game 5: (2-3) 9 September vs. Manhattan at STA at 1:00 in closing game of the Saints Soccer Classic: (3-0) EKL Standings 2023 STATS Classic Results coming into final day: Day 1:   LS West 1, STA, 0 (2 OT's) Dodge City 7, Manhattan 0 Day 2: Dodge City 3, STA 1 Lee's Summit West 1, Manhattan 0 OT) Day 3: Dodge City 6, LS West 1 STA 3, Manhattan 0 We arrived at the final day of the Saints Soccer Classic, not where we would like to be, but at an important point as a team. We went out today, without our star captain, senior, Cooper Welsh (red card) with the opportunity to show some grit and determination that we would quickly turn this season around in our second quarter. (Quarter one had ended with us 1-3). And we did. The energy came from a renewed effort to attack that baseline. The boys generated 11 first-half corners, and although we failed to cash any, the rhythm and energy it created aided in a well-executed first half. In the second half we added two more goals and lots of ...

Game 4: 1-3 7 September vs. Dodge City at St. James Academy (1-3) EKL Standings 2023 STATS Coming off a tough loss in the closing seconds of overtime, the boys responded well, playing an excellent match against #21 in the US, Dodge City.  Dodge got on the scoreboard early with a beautiful through ball that split our centerbacks and lead to a fine, fine shot.  Other than that our defense, throughout the field, played disciplined smothering attack after attack during that first half. We also saw that every set piece had a chance.  Second half we played with a lot more offensive thrusts, coming close 2-3 times on throws, corners and set pieces.  Unfortunately, Coop picked up a second yellow with a chunk still to play. We cut it to 2-1 on a Lebourveau to Laws second touch off a throw-in, and generated several nice opportunities to get it tied before they scored their third goal with about a minute left.  So the final score was 3-1, but that does seem to reflect the ...

Game 3: (1-2) 7 September vs. Lee's Summit West in opening around of the Saints Soccer Classic (0-1 in 2OT's) EKL Standings 2023 STATS Another one of BWhite's brainchild's was to create a big-time soccer tournament here at Saint Thomas Aquinas. We got it off to a start this year, bringing in 3 quality teams that will compete in a round robin. One of those teams, Dodge City, is currently ranked first in the state of Kansas and nationally at 21. We open against a very good Lee's Summit West team who is always one of the top teams across the State Line. This one just didn’t feel right as it ended. We had a dominant performance, but it also was a performance where we could not put the ball in the net. The best result we could have had was a 0-0 tie, but when the ball crosses the line virtually as the clock expires that expected tie would have felt a bit better. Defensively, we were solid in the match. The back line continues to produce excellent matches and we are getti...