State Finals vs. St. James 9 November (3-2)

Game 21 vs. St. James @ Goddard 9 November

Kansas City Star Write-up

CatchItKansas Write-up

Darth Eyeballs Photos from Final

Seasons rarely have that storybook ending that we all love to hear about. But this 2013 boys' soccer group, these "men of valour," they wrote one. 

There we stood, down 2-0, to the virtually all-senior top team in the State. And Ben Moss had been smothering Steven Enna, the leading scorer in the state, had kept him quiet, and yet we still had given up two goals. Not good. 

But we showed our valour. We stayed the course. We needed to get to one before they reached 3. And then we needed to get it tied. 

And we accomplished all of that. Nick D'Adamo served first one, then another perfect corner with Hagenkord, despite being pulled and tugged, rising above the fray to head both in. 

And the game-winner came in the closing 3 minutes where Michael Velasco chipped a beautiful ball to the never-never-land area where goalies don't like to go. It was there that Nick doffed the hat, where he jumped higher than high. A hat in the State Finals!! More for Aquinas lore. In fact Nick produced the single-most memorable performance in a State Final in Aquinas History, and we have some serious History! (I do not believe Kansas Soccer knows any other State Final performance equal to what Nick did: all three goals in a 3-2 win with the winning goal coming with just under 3 minutes left in the match.)

More amazing was how hard the rest of the team battled to keep a great St. James team at 2 for an eternity. 

There are team wins and then there are team wins. The "men of valour" finished their 2013 campaign at their best with a tremendous team win. 

Yes, BWhite named Nick the BWhite Player of the Match and yes he gave shoutouts to both Brown and Moss but this one "was one for all and all for one," as Coach Hammons would say. 

I mean look at this dog pile!

And we all know that the greatest and most satisfying victories come against great competition, competitions when we are up against possible defeat, even pending defeat. We just had a great opponent in St. James Academy, a great competitor.

BTW: The Eastern Kansas League won 6A, 5A, and 1-4A. That's a league. Congrats to BVNW and Bishop Miege, fellow EKL teammates.

STATS:

First Half: Saints Shots. 10 (3). Corners. 2

7:05 Hagenkord (D'Adamo bends left corner)

Thunder. Shots. 5 (3) Corners. 0

33:55 Jones (free kick headed to back post)

20:52 Jones (through ball beats our defense)

Second Half

Saints. Shots. 5 (4) Corners. 4

34:41 Hagenkord (D'Adamo bends it left)

2:56. Hagenkord (Brown to Heying to Stoecklein for a Velasco chip)

Corners. Johnston 2. Feuerborn. 2. Geist. Younger. 

Thunder. Shots. 5 (3). Corners. 0.