All-Metro boys soccer: Meet the top players around Wichita on The Eagle’s annual team
.JPG "The 2019 Wichita Eagle All-Metro boys soccer team: Back row (left to right): Maize South coach Rey Ramirez, Rose Hill’s Trystan Spiess, Andover Central’s Jadyn Vossen, Kapaun Mt. Carmel’s Kevin Black, Andover Central’s Leyton Harper, Derby’s Matthew Young. Middle row: Maize South’s Jack Manske, Maize South’s Raul Gerhardus, Wichita Heights’ Emiliano Banuelos, Eisenhower’s Ethan Doud. Front row: Trinity Academy’s Kai Kan, Wichita East’s Ivan Quezada.")
Only the best 11 players in the Wichita area can make The Eagle’s annual All-Metro boys soccer team.
Here are those top 11 from the 2019 season.
Leyton Harper - Andover Central, Forward, Sr.
Harper is one of the most electric players in Kansas.
With height and speed on the wing, he poses a threat down the sideline, but he also can finish in front of the goal. This season, he tied the Andover Central record with 25 goals.
Harper joins long-time teammate Jadyn Vossen on this year’s All-Metro team.
“Me and Jadyn have been playing together for almost 9-10 years now, so I think the chemistry has been there, and I think this year, we were really able to showcase that,” Harper said.
Ivan Quezada, Wichita East, Forward, Jr.
He’s back for the second time with another year to go.
Quezada was the City League’s leading scorer again in 2019 and helped Wichita East to the Class 6A semifinals. He finished with 33 goals and was named first team All-State.
He said he worked hard in the offseason to continue to score goals, and the Aces reached state for the first time since 2014.
“Do everything I can to help the team, be a big man, be a leader on the team and when I’m playing against the harder teams, try to show out,” Quezada said.
Jadyn Vossen - Andover Central, Forward, Sr.
Vossen is one of the most complete strikers in Kansas.
He shattered the Andover Central single season goals school record in the same season a teammate tied it.
Vossen said earning an All-Metro nod, especially with his striker partner Leyton Harper, is something he will one day tell his kids about.
“At the beginning of the season, we said, ‘Let’s just go out there and have some fun,’ ” Vossen said. “Little did we know one of us was going to tie (the record) and one of us was going to break.”
Kevin Black - Kapaun Mt. Carmel, Midfielder, Sr.
Black moved from midfield to striker midway through the season, and that risk paid off.
He finished just three goals off the City League lead, putting 30 balls in the back of the net. He spearheaded a rebuild at Kapaun: The Crusaders lost a lot of goal scoring last year, and Black stepped in.
Black said before this season, he talked with coach Anthony Cantele about possibly chasing Thomas Wells’ school record of 50 goals. He had only scored 10 goals in a high school season to that point.
“I tripled that in one year, and that was crazy to me,” Black said.
Ethan Doud - Eisenhower, Midfielder, Sr.
Before the season, Doud was ranked the No. 1 player in the Wichita area, and he lived up to that hype.
Doud makes his second straight All-Metro team in 2019 after pushing the Tigers to the Class 5A semifinals for the first time in school history.
Doud’s technicality on the ball, vision and decision-making with his passes made Eisenhower the final undefeated team in Kansas.
“We started out a little rough at the beginning of the season, and then we saw once we started playing together, nobody could really beat us,” Doud said.
Raul Gerhardus - Maize South, Midfielder, Jr.
Maize South has quickly become one of the best boys soccer programs in Kansas, and Gerhardus has been a huge key to that.
This season, Gerhardus scored 33 goals with seven assists splitting time as the Mavericks’ top forward and most creative midfielder. And he did it all with a scare that at the time was thought to potentially be life-threatening.
During Maize South’s game against Andover Central Oct. 22, Garhardus was taken down in the 18-yard box and suffered a seizure on the pitch. A couple of weeks later, he helped Maize South to its second straight Class 5A state championship game appearance.
“It seems like when our team goes through difficulties, we tend to even do better and work harder,” Gerhardus said. “We realized that we would have all of our injuries back by state, so we were motived to get back to state, and then we’d be back to normal.”
Kai Kan - Trinity Academy, Midfielder, Sr.
Kan easily could have finished this season with at least 20 goals. Instead, he did what was best for the team.
Playing out of a connecting midfield role, Kan finished with three goals and seven assists. But in doing so, he was the key cog to Trinity Academy’s run to the Class 4-1A state championship game, a contest in which he scored directly off a corner kick.
Kan was arguably the most influential player in the state-title game. He has as much skill on the ball as any player in Kansas.
“For our schedule, for being a 4A team, we’re playing a lot of 5A and 6A powerhouses,” he said. “We knew going into the season it was going to be a rough season with our record. Just kind of getting that grit and knowing we had been through that adversity and powering through it was what kept us driving.”
Emiliano Banuelos - Wichita Heights, Defender, Sr.
Wichita Heights underwent a complete resurgence in 2019, and Banuelos’ presence in the back was crucial.
An All-City League first-team selection, Banuelos kept the Falcons organized and his leadership helped Heights to its first Class 6A regional soccer title in more than 10 years with a 3-2 road win over Derby.
Banuelos was the one holding the regional-title plaque in the team photo after the victory.
“My sophomore year, that rock-bottom, and then coming up, I guess we were just all very cohesive and knew how to work together,” Banuelos said. “When you hit rock bottom, there’s only one way up.”
Jack Manske - Maize South, Defender, Sr.
Manske didn’t get to play as much as he would have liked during his senior season, but his leadership shined through.
Considered to be one of the best leaders to come through the Maize South program, Manske suffered a gruesome concussion in the Mavericks’ road test at Eisenhower on Oct. 15. It held him out for weeks.
Coach Rey Ramirez said Manske’s leadership, especially late in the season, was vital to his team’s success.
“As pieces fell off, we kind of figured out who could step in those pieces, and eventually a puzzle came back together,” Manske said.
Matthew Young - Derby, Defender, Sr.
Young’s poise in the back was apparent every time he touched the pitch.
Derby finished the 2019 regular season as the No. 4 seed in Class 6A West with a 12-2-2 record. Young and the Panthers’ defense posted eight clean sheets in the regular season.
Young was also part of the Derby team that reached the final four last season.
“Thanks to my coaches; they helped me a lot from freshman year to now,” Young said. “Seeing me grow from a freshman starter to All-Metro, it’s a really big blessing.”
Trystan Spiess - Rose Hill, Goalkeeper, Sr.
Rose Hill wasn’t the best team in the Wichita area this season, finishing the regular season 9-6-1, but Spiess kept the Rockets in almost every game.
He collected about 120 saves, and Rose Hill was one goal away from a Class 4-1A regional title.
Spiess becomes the second Rose Hill athlete to earn All-Metro honors in the past two years, joining former volleyball star Gracie Van Driel.
“It means a lot to be able to represent Rose Hill and show well for our community because we have a good, little community over in Rose Hill,” Spiess said.
Rey Ramirez - Maize South, Coach of the Year
Ramirez’s omission from last year’s All-Metro team could have been seen as a snub, but there was no doubt about his stature in 2019.
Maize South reached the Class 5A state championship game for the second straight year. Ramirez also had to manage through late-season injuries and even a seizure on the pitch.
The job he’s done in turning Mavericks soccer around has been one more the more impressive feats that Kansas soccer has seen.
“I’m a very small part of the team’s success and the ability of the team to overcome all of the obstacles,” Ramirez said. “It’s really a testament to our soccer families, to our soccer community and to each one of the boys individually as well.”