Goddard Eisenhower girls soccer makes history with first trip to 5A title game
Goddard Eisenhower had never been here before, not with the season still alive and a state championship one win away.
That alone made Wednesday night historic for the Eisenhower girls soccer team.
But the way the Tigers reached the first girls soccer state championship game in program history made it feel like something bigger than one breakthrough season.
The Tigers did not sneak past Blue Valley Southwest. They did not spend 80 minutes clinging to survival against one of the Kansas City-area programs that have so often ended Wichita’s soccer dreams at the state tournament.
Eisenhower struck first, defended with discipline and delivered a decisive 3-1 win at home in the Class 5A semifinals to advance to Saturday’s 3 p.m. state championship game against St. Thomas Aquinas at Scheels Stryker Sports Complex in Wichita.
For Eisenhower, it is a first. For Wichita, it is another chance to prove the balance of power in Class 5A girls soccer is beginning to shift.
“I think Wichita always has that underdog mentality,” Eisenhower coach Roger Downing said. “You go into every game like that when you play those KC schools, like you have something to prove. I do think we are catching up to them in quality.”
Eisenhower played like a team that knew exactly what it wanted to prove.
Downing, who has professional coaching experience from his time with the Wichita Wings, leaned on film study leading into the semifinal. He saw a BV Southwest team with dangerous attacking players, but he also believed there were weaknesses the Tigers could exploit.
The defensive plan was straightforward but demanding: get numbers behind the ball, stay compact and make BV Southwest work through as many bodies as possible before it could threaten the goal.
For most of the night, Eisenhower executed it almost exactly the way Downing had imagined.
Goalkeeper Jules Elliott, along with the center-back pairing of Dani Smith and Kaeleigh Shamburger, helped limit BV Southwest’s clean chances in the run of play. The Timberwolves’ lone goal came off a corner kick after Eisenhower had already built a 3-0 lead.
“Our coach did a really good job going over film and coming up with a plan,” Eisenhower junior Reese Nusser said. “We felt like coming into the game we knew exactly what we wanted to do and what we needed to do to win.”
The first sign came less than five minutes into the match.
A free kick dropped into the BV Southwest box, bounced through traffic and eventually found sophomore forward Kaitlyn Celso. She did not panic. She made one decisive move to create space, then blasted the ball into the net for a 1-0 lead.
For a team trying to reach uncharted territory, the early goal changed everything.
“Scoring the first goal five minutes in was massive for us,” Downing said. “It gave our girls a lot of confidence and hope. Kansas City teams are typically considered better than Wichita teams, but I think you can start to see that stigma changing.”
Celso has picked the perfect time for her best stretch of the season. Her semifinal goal continued a torrid postseason run, as she has now scored in three straight playoff games.
That early punch also allowed Eisenhower to settle into the game. The Tigers could defend with numbers, pick their moments to counter and force BV Southwest to chase the match.
Before halftime, Eisenhower found the second goal it needed.
Another loose ball bounced around the box and sophomore Charley Twietmeyer was ready. The BV Southwest goalkeeper was caught off her line after a ricochet and Twietmeyer struck a powerful shot into the open goal for a 2-0 lead.
The finish looked composed because that is what Twietmeyer has done all season, even if most of her goals had come before her varsity postseason call-up. She had been a goal-scoring machine on junior varsity and when Eisenhower needed a goal in a state semifinal, she delivered with the same poise.
“She’s a goal scorer at heart,” Downing said. “If she has an open goal, she ain’t going to miss.”
Still, the Tigers knew 2-0 at halftime was not safe.
Downing had noticed on film how often BV Southwest came out of halftime aggressively and struck quickly after the break. So Eisenhower made the opening minutes of the second half a point of emphasis.
Instead of absorbing pressure, the Tigers landed the next blow.
Four minutes into the second half, Celso chipped a ball over the last line of defense and sent Nusser racing into space. Nusser chased it down, stayed composed and slotted the finish into the net for a 3-0 lead.
It was the perfect counterattack at the perfect time, and it marked the second straight playoff game in which Nusser has scored.
“It was definitely brought up in our pregame talk,” Nusser said of the Wichita-vs.-Kansas City rivalry.
That angle will follow Eisenhower into Saturday’s championship game.
In the 20 years before 2025, Wichita-area teams went 6-33 against Kansas City-area teams in the final four of the state tournament. For years, the script felt almost automatic: the two Kansas City-area teams in the bracket would beat the Wichita-area teams, then play each other for the championship while Wichita teams were left to play for third place.
There were breakthroughs along the way, including Kapaun Mt. Carmel reaching the final in 2008 and 2016 and Valley Center doing the same in 2013. But even when Wichita teams made the championship game, they were stopped by Kansas City-area powers.
Then Bishop Carroll changed the conversation last season.
The Golden Eagles became the first Wichita-area girls soccer team to win the 5A state championship, beating De Soto in the semifinals and St. James Academy in the final. Kapaun also beat De Soto at the state tournament, giving Wichita-area teams a 3-1 record against Kansas City-area opponents and their first winning head-to-head showing at 5A state.
Now Eisenhower has added another victory. Over the last two seasons, Wichita-area teams have beaten Kansas City-area teams four times at the state tournament, nearly matching their total from the previous 20 years.
There are two more Wichita-vs.-KC matchups coming Saturday: Kapaun will face BV Southwest in the third-place game, while Eisenhower will meet Aquinas for the title.
Aquinas, which beat Kapaun 4-0 in Wednesday’s other semifinal, is the ultimate measuring stick with 20 state championships in program history.
That makes Saturday a massive challenge. It also makes it exactly the kind of stage Eisenhower wanted.
Downing’s phone was already filling up Wednesday night with texts from Wichita-area coaches congratulating him and wishing the Tigers luck. To him, that support captured why this run matters beyond one team.
“We have a community and a bond here that, honestly, I don’t think Kansas City shares,” Downing said.
For the first time, the Tigers will enter a state championship game with a chance to make their own history — and to keep pushing forward a Wichita soccer surge that no longer feels like a one-year exception.
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