Freshman hat trick delivers Wichita Trinity first Kansas boys soccer title since 2010
It only took Trinity Academy boys soccer coach Andy Hackett one training session this summer to figure out freshman Wyatt Afman was different.
Afman was just 14 but already he was hammering home goals with precision. And to think, he actually grew up playing mostly center-back for his club team.
Hackett still remembers their first conversation in practice five months ago.
“Hey buddy, you’re going to score a lot of goals for us this year,” Hackett told the freshman in June. “Get ready.”
Those words proved prescient after Afman delivered a hat trick in the Class 4-1A state championship match on Saturday to help lift Trinity to a 4-3 win over Rose Hill at Scheels Stryker Complex in Wichita.
Just as Hackett predicted, Afman scored a lot of goals — a team-high 25, in fact. But none was bigger than the ones that clinched the program’s third state title, and first since 2010, on Saturday.
“I challenged him a few games back,” Hackett said, “‘Hey, you have what it takes to take your game really far. This is the time you can step your game up and show everybody what you’re made of. This is your time to shine.’
“I knew people weren’t going to expect a freshman to step up and take over, but man, he did it. Sometimes when you’re young, you don’t really feels the brevity of the situation.”
No one enjoyed the victory more than Trinity’s senior class of Cooper Mathews, Brice Wills, Grayson Payne, Landon Hale, Nolan Wilson, Jack Hershberger and Jaren Martinson. The group ended their careers with four straight trips to the state semifinals, but the previous three had all ended in heartbreak short of a trophy.
The breakthrough on Saturday was emotional.
“The feeling of being so close was just terrible after you put so much work in,” Mathews said. “So this was definitely built up over the last four years and that pushed us a little extra this year.
“And then we just had a mindset shift from the last couple of years. We thought of it as our state title this year and somebody was going to have to come take it from us.”
Saturday’s final was a heated rematch between Wichita-area rivals from a quarterfinal game last fall that Trinity won in a shootout at Rose Hill.
Throw in championship stakes, and Afman said he was feeling the nerves early in Saturday’s game.
“But my captains, Cooper, Brice and Grayson, helped calm me down and helped me play my game,” Afman said. “It helped a lot knowing I had that support and that people had my back. That really motivated me to play my best and play for the team.”
It didn’t take long for fireworks in Saturday’s championship, as Afman scored his first goal in the 12th minute only for Rose Hill to equalize in the 20th minute with a strike by Luke Anderson.
Afman netted his second to give Trinity a 2-1 halftime lead, but Rose Hill leveled the score again right after halftime with a goal by Brady Liebl.
Trinity’s winning stretch came in the final 30 minutes of the match, as Afman scored his third with a clean-up in front of goal with 27 minutes remaining and Mathews provided the needed cushion with a goal with 16 minutes left.
Rose Hill clawed one back late on a goal by Johnny Leck but couldn’t tie the score for a third time in the final nine minutes.
While the Trinity seniors led the way to the title, it was the goal-scoring prowess of a freshman that helped put the Knights over the top.
“He’s such a talented kid,” Mathews said of Afman. “He’s going to be special. Shoot, he already is special.”
“And the crazy thing is, people haven’t even seen the best of him yet,” Hackett added.
Hoisting the championship trophy on Saturday was easy work, but it made the Trinity players think of the difficult journey they have had to navigate to get to that moment.
The team always plays a demanding schedule, but Trinity’s cohesion was put to the test in September after the Knights started the season with a 3-3 record.
It was a testament to the senior class that Trinity survived the shaky start and played its best soccer when it mattered most, ending the season on an eight-game winning streak.
“To see the seniors as happy as they are, really made the experience that much better,” Afman said. “They talked all season about how they thought we had a really good chance and that motivated me to try to make that dream come true, and it did.
“Our team all helped get us here and now we all get to celebrate together.”
Kansas high school boys soccer state final scores
Class 5A
First: Blue Valley Southwest 7, Maize South 0
Third: St. James Academy 2, Salina South 0
Class 4-1A
First: Trinity Academy 4, Rose Hill
Third: Baldwin 2, Bishop Miege 1
This story was originally published November 9, 2024 at 3:14 PM.
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