FC Wichita rolls into playoffs

FC Wichita head coach Larry Inlow was doused in a tub of Gatorade. Then water. Finally, the symbol of success: a bottle of champagne.

In its inaugural season, FC Wichita earned a playoff berth with a 4-0 win over Fort Worth Vaqueros FC on Sunday at the Stryker Soccer Complex in front of a sellout crowd of 1,821 fans.

After the win, FC Wichita and owner Blake Shumaker celebrated with the team’s most faithful supporters — a group that chanted, sang, and danced as FC Wichita was presented with its trophy — a gold cup for the NPSL conference championship.

“The culture has changed,” Shumaker said. “Every game, it’s gotten a little louder, every game more people. By the end of this, there’s champagne and 100-some people out there, chanting and celebrating and jumping with (the team).

“I think we just changed the landscape of the soccer culture in Wichita.”

FC Wichita dominated in front of the club’s largest-ever crowd. It took only nine minutes for Wichita to get on the board as Iyassu Bekele took a feed from Matt Clare in the middle of the field, drove between a pair of midfielders, then split defenders and easily beat the goalkeeper to go up 1-0.

“The first goal is always important in any game, but especially in this one here,” Inlow said. “They didn’t have anything thing to play for in terms of post-season play… That right there was the beginning of the decline for them.”

When defender Kevin Ten Eyck got a free kick on the left sideline, about 15 yards back from the midfield mark, he turned to the sideline.

“He turns to us, before he sets the ball down and goes, ‘should I shoot it?’ and we said ‘yes!’” Inlow said.

The 70-yard shot flew over the head of Fort Worth’s mispositioned keeper and into the net for a 2-0. It was the first of two goals on the night for Ten Eyck, who hadn’t scored two goals in outdoor soccer since playing forward in college.

“It was just kind of a surreal moment,” Ten Eyck said. “I went over to the ball, I looked up, and I saw the goalie standing far out, and we hadn’t really been creating much up top.

“I take pride in my long balls, my ability to put the ball where I want it. But it was a lot of luck.”

Clare put in another goal at the end of the first half — his 13th of the season — for a 3-0 lead.

“Once you taste something like this, it’s really, really hard to go the other way,” Inlow said. “The boys have met and exceeded every goal I’ve had for them at this point. Now we’re three games from playing in the national game.”

The team begins the NPSL playoffs on Saturday at Myrtle Beach.

“I really don’t know what to expect,” Ten Eyck said. “I don’t know how these other teams are going to be in these other conferences. It’s something we can’t take lightly.

“If we sit down and slack off and take it as a vacation, we’re going to get bounced out early, and nobody wants that. Your ultimate goal in soccer is to win a championship, and that’s what we’re going to go for.”

This story was originally published July 12, 2015 at 11:14 PM with the headline "FC Wichita rolls into playoffs."