Introducing the 2020 Wichita Eagle All-Metro high school boys soccer team
Some of the best seniors from the area highlight The Eagle’s 17th annual All-Metro boys soccer team, as Maize South senior forward Raul Gerhardus was named the area’s Player of the Year.
The All-Metro team consists of 11 of the top soccer players and the top coach from Sedgwick, Butler and Harvey counties, based on statistics and area coach’s feedback.
Here is a look at the full 2020 Wichita Eagle All-Metro boys soccer team:
Raul Gerhardus, Maize South senior
Vitals: Forward for a Maize South team that finished with a 16-2 record and reached a Class 5A regional championship game. Finished as the program’s all-time leading goal scorer with 94 career goals and led Mavericks to two state championship games. Was named the MVP in the AV-CTL Div. I this season.
Stats: 30 goals and 6 assists.
Coach Rey Ramirez on Gerhardus: “What stands out to me first off is his creativity and his 1-v-1 dribbling ability. There are times where he’ll be cornered and he’s so quick, so nifty, so creative that he finds a way out of those situations. He creates space where there is no space and he finds shooting angles where nobody else sees shooting angles. He just has innate qualities of being a goal scorer. There were a lot of times where opposing defenses did everything they were supposed to do and he just found a way to slip the ball through. He finds solutions to problems.”
Opposing coach on Gerhardus: “He’s got all of the physical tools. He’s the fastest kid out there and he’s got a powerful shot with both legs. But really, it’s all up top in his brain. He reads the play and reacts before everybody. I’ve seen him trap the ball with his neck, with the outside of his thigh. He can bring it down however it’s serviced to him. He was fun to watch and I’m glad he’s graduating so we don’t have to play him again.”
Cade Martin, Valley Center junior
Vitals: Earned MVP honors in the AV-CTL Div. II playing midfielder, despite Valley Center finishing with a 7-11 record. Led the Hornets to a Class 5A regional championship game.
Stats: 11 goals and 12 assists.
Coach Matt Coleman on Martin: “Cade has been a technically-flawless player for us since he was a freshman. The kid has so much ability and now he’s beginning to physically mature, so there really are no weaknesses to his game. He’s outstanding defensively in the midfield and we haven’t scored a goal in the last two years where he hasn’t played a huge role in scoring or creating it. At the high school level, he’s one of the most complete players I’ve ever seen. I could put him at goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, forward and he would be an all-league player.”
Opposing coach on Martin: “He’s a lot like Raul (Gerhardhus) where his mental makeup is just top-notch. He really transformed his body because you could tell this season he’s been in the gym. Now he can go toe to toe with anybody physically and he was really hard to deal with after they moved him up to the midfield. He has so much technical skill and he’s so fast and such a hard worker. If there was one player in the area I could recruit to my team, it would be Cade Martin.”
Ethan Cary, Trinity Academy junior
Vitals: Defender for a Trinity Academy team that finished with a 13-7-1 record and reached its second straight Class 4-1A championship game. His versatility allowed him to move up top for Trinity when it needed goals and that ability is already attracting Division I attention.
Stats: 10 goals and 1 assist.
Coach Mark Brooks on Cary: “He’s tall and communicates well and anticipates well. He’s a great reader of the game on the back line. He’s probably one of the best 1-v-1 defenders that I’ve seen in my time. It’s all of that size and speed and anticipation and reading the game and then acting on it. A lot of guys can see things, but not everybody acts on it as well as he does. And then he’s able to use that size to elevate over guys in the air. Plus he makes everybody around him better.”
Opposing coach on Cary: “We were up most of the game on them and they just kept putting balls in the air to that guy and he was an absolute monster. I kept telling our assistants that we were dodging bullets and then sure enough, he put one away late on us and had us on our heels. He probably played our top goal-scorer the best as far as marking than any team we played in our league. He made a pretty big impression on us.”
Mikey Velasquez, Maize senior
Vitals: Forward for a Maize team that finished with a 17-2-1 record and reached the Class 5A state championship match. A transfer who had a breakout season in his lone season at Maize after a move up top to striker, where he led the team in goals and was named first team all-league.
Stats: 22 goals and 10 assists.
Coach Mike Pfeifer on Velasquez: “More than anything else, I was impressed with his heart and commitment to us this year. He came to us from Newton for his last year, so he had all of his eggs in the basket and I think he blossomed into a leader on our team. When the guys were down, he was the guy who was picking them up and constantly keeping a positive attitude. I think his confidence grew throughout the season when he realized he had the skills and athleticism to be a great player.”
Opposing coach on Velasquez: “I knew right away when he went to Maize that he was going to take them to another level. He was the guy you had to key in on. But that was hard to do because of his speed. He’s just an explosive kid and it was crazy how quickly he could get on the ball and get his shot off. We had a couple of really solid guys on our back line and he just burned them. Once he turns the corner on you, you’re not catching him.”
Hassan Al-Amood, Campus senior
Vitals: Forward for a Campus team that finished with a 12-5 record and played in a Class 6A regional championship game. He was a four-year starter and ended career as Campus’ all-time leader for goals and assists, while earning first team all-league honors this season.
Stats: 22 goals and 2 assists.
Coach Casey Reece on Alamood: “There’s so many things that make him a special kid. He’s just one of those players who if you can just get him the ball, he’s going to create something and make something good happen for your team. Everyone we play knows he’s the guy you have to stop, but he still finds a way to get the job done even when he has two or three guys on him. If he wasn’t scoring the goal for us, he was drawing the attention and opening things up for our other guys. We always knew we had a chance in every game because of him.”
Opposing coach on Alamood: “He was just a pure goal scorer. He’s got so much skill and athleticism. He was a very, very tough player to defend because he’s so dangerous from everywhere. Our biggest job on him was just trying to deny him the ball when we played them.”
Angel Derath, East senior
Vitals: Left back for an East team that finished with a 14-1 record, won the City League and reached the Class 6A quarterfinals. After switching from forward, Derath was just as lethal playing on the back line and was named the MVP in the City League.
Stats: 6 goals and 2 assists.
Coach Fred Koepp on Derath: “Lalo made the switch from outside forward to outside back this year and I would say he was even more dangerous than he was the year before and that’s saying something because he was already extremely dangerous. The big thing he did for us this year was step up as one of our captains and take on a leadership role. If we needed anything done, he did it and he worked every minute he was on the field for his teammates and for himself. He put in a complete season of just fantastic soccer. He was quick, he was smart, and he was an all-around leader.”
Opposing coach on Derath: “I wish he would have played somewhere else this year like Maize South, so we didn’t have to play him. He was an anchor in the back for them, for sure. You couldn’t out-run him. If you were trying to play the ball anywhere in his general direction, it was going to be really hard to get it back to the middle of the field. We actually told our guys not to go to that side of the field just so we could maximize our chances.”
Corey Gleason, Eisenhower senior
Vitals: Midfielder for an Eisenhower team that finished with a 12-4 record and lost to eventual Class 5A runner-up Maize in the first round of the playoffs. Earned first team all-league honors.
Stats: 11 goals and 8 assists.
Coach Roger Downing on Gleason: “Corey was a true man amongst boys out there for us this season. It’s that way every time he plays. He’s exceptionally technical for his size. I think it’s safe to say anybody who has played against him, they know who he is after the game.”
Opposing coach on Gleason: “The first thing you notice is just how big he is and how well he’s able to control the ball with a body like that. You can’t get the ball off of him. You’re only hope is to try to get him to play it backward or sideways. He’s one of the toughest midfielders for us to handle.”
Monty Almaliky, Heights junior
Vitals: Midfielder for a Heights team that finished runner-up in the City League with an 11-2 record and played for a Class 6A regional championship. He led the City league in points this season with 50 points in just 11 games.
Stats: 21 goals and 8 assists.
Coach Charlie Smith on Almaliky: “He’s one of those kids that every time he steps on the field something positive is going to happen for your team. He’s extremely skilled and plays with a lot of heart and passion. I’m really excited to see where he’s going to end up when it’s all said and done after his final year and where he goes from there. The sky is the limit for this kid.”
Opposing coach on Almaliky: “Monty is just the definition of a true competitor. He will fight you tooth and nail and do whatever he can to help his team win the game. He’s quick and he has a fantastic touch and he makes smart decisions and knows how to shoot. He’s a really tough kid to play against and he has so much potential.”
Tanner Prophet, Maize senior
Vitals: Holding midfielder for a Maize team that finished with a 17-2-1 record and played for the Class 5A state championship. Scored the penalty kick to send the Eagles to the title game and also earned first team all-league honors.
Stats: 8 goals and 6 assists.
Coach Mike Pfeifer on Prophet: “If Tanner doesn’t buy into my system, I don’t think we could run the formation that we did or have the run that we did. He was definitely one of our biggest keys to success. I had to keep telling him, ‘You can’t run touch line to touch line.’ It took him a few games to get used to it, but in the big games, he came up huge for us. He stayed at home and he was committed to playing that position and staying disciplined. He was definitely our leader on the field.”
Opposing coach on Prophet: “If your team is going to take it to the next level, you have to have a kid like Tanner Prophet in the center midfield for you. He’s one of those kids who probably didn’t put up a lot of stats, but he had so many of those unwritten stats by creating opportunities for his team and making the assist to the assist pass. He creates a calmness in the middle of the field for them. We have some really good players in the midfield and we just struggled to string together passes because of him.”
Carlos Vidrio, Eisenhower senior
Vitals: Defender for an Eisenhower team that finished with a 12-4 record and lost to eventual Class 5A runner-up Maize in the first round of the playoffs. Earned first team all-league honors and had the versatility of moving up top for the Tigers.
Stats: 15 goals and 6 assists.
Coach Roger Downing on Vidrio: “He was just bigger, faster, stronger than a lot of kids he matched up against. Just his pace and his aggressiveness is what set him apart. He played right back and right forward for us and we asked him to do a lot for us this season and he stepped up and did it all for our team.”
Opposing coach on Vidrio: “His speed is what stood out to me. He was always dangerous when they moved him up in the field because he was so creative. When they needed goals, he was always a threat. He was a competitor.”
Brandon Bumgarner, Andover Central junior
Vitals: Goalkeeper for an Andover Central team that allowed just four goals during its postseason run to a fourth-place finish in Class 5A. Earned first team all-league honors with 116 saves and an 81% save rate.
Stats: 1.29 goals allowed per game
Coach Steven Huskey on Bumgarner: “He’s tutored by the FC Wichita goalkeeper and he is a legit keeper. We had a great one in Davis Joseph, but I think Brandon could push that territory next year. The No. 1 thing with him is bravery. This guy does not turn away from those close 1v1 shots. The amount of saves he made in those situations this year were astronomical. An overlooked thing in goalkeepers is distribution and whether it was with his hands or feet, his distribution was phenomenal for us.”
Opposing coach on Bumgarner: “When we went up against him, shooting from distance was not an option. If you didn’t place it perfectly in the upper 90, you weren’t going to score. It was basically a waste of possession if you were going to shoot from distance. He just never made a mistake. Even in the game we won against him, we had to send a lot of traffic in there so we could get an opportunity. Good keepers have that ability to make the outstanding save and he’s one of those guys.”
Mike Pfeifer, Maize coach
Vitals: Led Maize to a 17-2-1 record and a trip to the Class 5A state championship match in his first season coaching the team. The Eagles were the only team to beat Maize South this season and thrived in Pfeifer’s defensive system.
Coach Mike Pfeier on Maize: “Coming in on basically two days’ notice and having the run that we did, it was obviously a dream season for me and just a really fun ride. For me, there wasn’t really any pressure. I felt really good about our training sessions and our game plans and I just trusted our guys to go out there and execute and do what we needed to do on the pitch. For me, this will be a special season I can always look back on and feel special about what we were able to accomplish.”
Opposing coach on Maize: “They were a little more explosive offensively than they had been in the past two or three years. They were just a really good, possession team. Usually a team has one or two weak links, but you could tell they trusted every one of their guys and they would knock it all the way around and swing it back to their keeper. They kept their shape really well and just possessed the ball. And it was impressive how quickly they were able to transition when they did win the ball. That’s where we got burned was off their counter.”
All-Metro Second Team
Jared Cromly, Andover Central junior
David Darrah, Classical senior forward
Caden Dinkel, Rose Hill senior forward
Adam Dyer, Maize South senior midfielder
Landon Eskridge, Maize South senior forward
Calixtro Gutierrez, East senior forward
Alex Kirsten-Westgard, Trinity Academy junior goalkeeper
Bergen Loveless, Bishop Carroll junior midfielder
Caden Miller, Derby senior defender
Ivan Quezada, East senior forward
Alex Sanchez-Cortinas, Newton senior defender
Jacob White, Andover Central senior defender
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