The 2017 Wichita Eagle All-Metro boys soccer team

Blake Arndt

Northwest senior forward

Coach Bobby Bribiesca on Arndt: “He worked hard for everything he got this season. Teams knew he was our top threat and they would do everything they could to stop him. He would have to fight through three defenders and he never gave up. He was always hungry to score, no matter what the score was. He was always demanding the ball because he wanted to make something happen. I’m going to miss that next year.”

Opposing coach on Arndt: “When you play Northwest, you know you have to stop that guy. He’s talented, athletic, just a natural striker. He’s always dangerous with the ball at his feet, but we found out you have to pay attention to him at all times because he can turn the game upside down just like that. You love to see really dangerous players like that in our league, but you hate to play against him.”

2017 stats: 16 goals, 5 assists on a 7-10 Northwest team.

2017 honors: City League first team all-league. First time All-Metro selection.

Future college: Central Arkansas.

Cody Benedict

Kapaun senior midfielder

Coach Anthony Cantele on Benedict: “He was probably our most skilled player and that’s a huge attribute necessary to be successful in his role. Cody was our best scorer, but also was the best at creating opportunities for other guys. He was intelligent enough to know how the play was shaping up and see how the defense was keying on and find the openings.”

Opposing coach on Benedict: “He was probably the greatest player we had to play against this entire season. It was always a little nerve-racking when they would come out of the midfield and Benedict would be running on. There’s just not many ways you can stop him. You just had to hope he’s on a bad night or your formation matches up just right.”

2017 stats: 21 goals, 2 assists on a 16-4-1 Kapaun team that finished third in Class 5A.

2017 honors: City League first team all-league. Two-time All-Metro selection.

Future college: Unsigned.

Alec Bevis

Carroll senior defender

Coach Michael Skaggs on Bevis: “He’s the total package. A great defender with great size, smarts, and pace. A lot of defenders don’t have the foot skills like he has, so he was able to come up and even score a couple of goals for us this year. He really can do it all. He’s one of the best players we’ve ever had at Carroll and maybe even in the city.”

Opposing coach on Bevis: “Outside of our own team, he’s my favorite player to watch and compete against. He’s just so strong and athletic and with his experience in the back, he brings such a steady presence back there for them. We knew we had to go to the outside when we attacked them because if you went down the middle, he’s going to put a stop to it.”

2017 stats: 12 shutouts and 11 goals allowed on a 18-2-1 Carroll team that reached the Class 5A championship game.

2017 honors: City League first team all-league.

Future college: Unsigned.

Alfonso Ceballos

North junior midfielder

Coach Curt Wullschleger on Ceballos: “The only way to describe Ceballos is he just does Ceballos things. That’s stuff no other player does. Every time there’s a 50-50 ball in the middle, not only does he win it but then he figures out how to attack the space behind the defense with either a quick pass or a fast dribble. He’s super creative and has the field awareness, the vision, and the technical ability to do those magical things with the ball. I would pay to watch this kid play the game.”

Opposing coach on Ceballos: “He just killed us in the midfield when we played them. We had to make adjustments at halftime to try to reduce his chances of creating. But it ended up not mattering what we did, he was so talented that if he had the ball at his feet then we knew we were probably in trouble.”

2017 stats: 3 goals, 3 assists on a 15-4 North team that reached the Class 6A quarterfinals.

2017 honors: City League first team all-league.

Future college: Uncommitted.

Corbyn Howard

Carroll senior midfielder

Coach Michael Skaggs on Howard: “The five seniors who had been on varsity since their freshman year were all very unique. Of those five, Corbyn was the flash. He was the excitement. He’s the one that’s going to be scoring the goals and making the highlights. He led us in scoring last year, then we pulled him back into the midfield and he was a lot more of a playmaker for us this year. He just has incredible ball skills and he’s done stuff on the ball I haven’t seen from a lot of kids around here.”

Opposing coach on Howard: “The skill was obvious. Carroll was solid all the way around the field, but you knew you had to find some way to slow him down in the middle of the field. You could tell he was very confident in himself and for good reason, he was able to create just about anything he wanted against a lot of really good teams this season.”

2017 stats: 12 goals, 4 assists on a 18-2-1 Carroll team that reached the Class 5A championship game.

2017 honors: City League first team all-league.

Future college: Unsigned.

Davis Joseph

Andover Central junior goalkeeper

Coach Steven Huskey on Joseph: “Since he came in as a freshman, we knew he was going to be our starting keeper. He’s trained as a keeper at the club level and he has the mobility to go side-to-side and cover each of his posts. What he’s been lacking in the past was distribution and this year he really improved that for us. He was just much more aware of what we needed from him and delivered a really outstanding season.”

Opposing coach on Joseph: “From what I remember, his positioning against us was just awesome. He did a great job of knowing where to be and technically he was really sound in goal. I remember we had a couple of opportunities where we got behind their defense and he came up big and really ignited them and that’s when they took over the game.”

2017 stats: 8 shutouts and a 0.8 goals allowed average on a 17-4 Andover Central team that reached the Class 4-1A championship game.

2017 honors: AV-CTL II first team all-league.

Future college: Uncommitted.

Jackson Lewallen

Andover Central senior forward

Coach Steven Huskey on Lewallen: “He provided the visual example of leadership. He strived to make the others around him better. Another thing he worked really hard at was finishing. If you watch his 21 goals, he did it in many different ways. Finishing aerially was probably his trademark, but he developed his inside foot, outside foot, and had some chips over the keeper. This year he was able to finish using his speed and finish at speed.”

Opposing coach on Lewallen: “His pace and his athleticism were just so dangerous. It seemed like he was always in dangerous positions to score. I remember him as somebody we had to pay special attention to and often times man mark the last few years. He’s a really talented kid.”

2017 stats: 21 goals, 7 assists on a 17-4 Andover Central team that reached the Class 4-1A championship game.

2017 honors: AV-CTL II first team all-league.

Future college: Unsigned.

Ryan McCully

Kapaun senior defender

Coach Anthony Cantele on McCully: “When he was healthy, Ryan was our leader in the back for us. Not only was he rock solid at centerback, but he was a deadly weapon for us on set pieces. We scored on at least 15 this season and Ryan was a big part of that. He just knew where to be and he wasn’t afraid to let the ball come to him and attack it. It was that kind of determination that allowed him to be successful.”

Opposing coach on McCully: “He was great for them in the back. He was big, strong, could even get into the attack sometimes. We knew we had to account for him, especially on set pieces. It’s tough scoring on teams when they have somebody with that kind of skill on the back line.”

2017 stats: 6 goals, including a combined five against Dodge City and St. Thomas Aquinas, on a 16-4-1 Kapaun team that finished third in Class 5A.

2017 honors: City League first team all-league.

Future college: Unsigned.

Alejandro Orona

North senior defender

Coach Curt Wullschleger on Orona: “He’s a natural attacking player, but he reads the game extraordinarily well and anticipates things so well that we have him in the back for us. He’s very comfortable on the ball, so when he breaks up a play he can find a playmaker in the middle and join the attack. He had seven assists largely because he was able to cover 100 percent of the field.”

Opposing coach on Orona: “Their defense gets overlooked a lot because they have such an explosive offense, so it’s kind of shocking for a lot of teams when they find out just how difficult it is to score on them. A big reason for that was because of him back there in the middle for them. He cleaned a lot of stuff up.”

2017 stats: 4 goals, 7 assists (team-high) on a 15-4 North team that reached the Class 6A quarterfinals.

2017 honors: City League first team all-league.

Future college: Unsigned.

Kwame Parry

Eisenhower senior forward

Coach Roger Downing on Parry: “Kwame is obviously an elite goal scorer and the first thing you notice about him is his explosiveness. But he really took the next step this season by involving his teammates. Last year he kind of scored his goals on his own. But we talked to him about how the difference between a good player and a great player was his ability to use his teammates. I thought Kwame became a great player this season.”

Opposing coach on Parry: “Everyone knows Kwame for his speed and ability to get behind the back line and his ability to finish with his left foot. But the underrated thing about his game was his physicality. He is very muscular, so you don’t want to get too close defending him 1 on 1. He’ll turn right by you and put a shot on goal.”

2017 stats: 22 goals, 20 assists on a 16-2 Eisenhower team that reached a Class 5A regional championship.

2017 honors: AV-CTL II MVP, AV-CTL II first team all-league.

Future college: Unsigned.

Trinidad Tackett

Campus senior forward

Coach Casey Reece on Tackett: “The main thing about Trin is he’s dynamic. He can go either way and he’s pretty good with both feet. All it takes is one move and he’s going to blow by you. He’s dangerous from just about anywhere on the field. The main thing he really improved on this year was he really made a commitment to pressuring teams up top defensively for us and you look back at some of our wins this season and that was a real difference-maker for us.”

Opposing coach on Tackett: “I can definitely see how that kid wrecked havoc for teams all season. He’s not just fast, he’s quick. You could tell he was anticipating the play, then he would have that first and second step to get into something before anybody else would have the chance. Fortunately for us, we only had to face him once.”

2017 stats: 14 goals, 8 assists on a 14-4 Campus team that reached a Class 6A regional championship.

2017 honors: AV-CTL I MVP, AV-CTL I first team all-league.

Future college: Unsigned.

Casey Reece

Campus coach

Reece on Campus: “It’s really been a process of the last three years kind of building up to this year with these guys. The talent has always been there. It was just a matter of getting these kids to believe in themselves and believe they can hang with some of the top teams. We did that this season. It’s been really cool to see the support from the entire school and if you ever came to one of our games, then you knew our student section this year was just unreal.”

Opposing coach on Campus: “You could tell that was a team that believed in each other. They had it rolling this year and I was impressed with the chemistry they had on the field. We tried to pick them apart, but they were just really, really strong all over the field. It was definitely one of those feel-good stories for that community.”

2017 stats: Reece led Campus to a 14-4 record and an appearance in a Class 6A regional championship game. The Colts set program records in wins (14) and shutouts (14) and they won a league championship (AV-CTL I) for the first time in program history.

This story was originally published November 18, 2017 at 3:31 PM with the headline "The 2017 Wichita Eagle All-Metro boys soccer team."