Three of Wichita’s best soccer teams fight for two playoff spots and one league title
In the Kansas City area, there is a boys high school soccer team called Bishop Miege that has won three straight state championships and five in the past decade.
This year, Miege figures to contend for the Class 4-1A title again, but you would never know if you looked at the Stags’ record. Miege is the No. 10 seed in 4-1A West.
The Stags are 6-10-0. They have a -8 goal differential and had a five-game losing streak from September to October.
Yet Miege has a better chance of winning a state championship than its Eastern Kansas League title. The Stags play schools double in size, sometimes two classifications larger. It makes them better, and they dominate the smaller schools when they get to state.
Last year, Miege beat Buhler 4-0 in the title game. Buhler had three losses all season.
So why don’t teams in the Wichita area play tougher schedules?
At least three of them did to finish the regular season. They all compete in the same classification, and they all compete for the same league title.
Andover Central, Eisenhower and Maize South were the last three undefeated teams in Kansas two weeks ago. They had a 35-0-0 combined record.
Oct. 15, Eisenhower and Maize South met in a virtual first round of the AVCTL II title playoffs. Eisenhower won 6-4 in one of the most entertaining games Kansas had seen in 2019. Two players, one from each team, scored a hat trick.
Tuesday, Andover Central went to Maize South and won 2-1 on a late winner from Andover Central’s Leo Wurth. It was Maize South’s second straight loss; the Mavericks reached the Class 5A state championship game last season.
Thursday, Andover Central and Eisenhower, both still unbeaten, met to decide the league championship. Eisenhower won 2-1 in double overtime as Tiger senior Dominic LiCastro towered over the Andover Central defense for a game-winning header.
The win captured the AVCTL II title and No. 1 seed in Class 5A West.
“Being in this league is just an early taste of playoff soccer; it’s an early taste of state championship soccer,” Maize South coach Rey Ramirez said. “These three teams are just as good as anybody else in the state. Winning games during the regular season prepares you less for the postseason than becoming a better soccer team through all of these types of battles.
“We’re not worried about the record, the wins and losses. We are worried about what is going to make us better for the postseason.”
With the regular season complete, here are the standings in Class 5A West:
- Eisenhower (15-0-1)
- Andover Central (15-1-0)
- Maize South (13-2-1)
- McPherson (13-2-1)
The race to state is split into four regional tournaments. Eisenhower, Andover Central and Maize South will all have homefield advantage through those tournaments. If they all win their regionals, two of them would meet for a spot in the final four in Spring Hill.
“We said back in August, ‘Maize South and Eisenhower will be undefeated when we see them,’” Andover Central coach Steven Huskey said. “The way they looked going in, it doesn’t take a genius to see that. We knew we would be up against it, but we kept telling each other that we will know how good we are after this week.”