Rural soccer wraps up perfect Centennial League run, 4-0 over Topeka High

Washburn Rural's boys soccer team had already clinched a share of the Centennial League championship for the 25th straight season, but the Junior Blues wanted the title all to themselves, a goal they accomplished with a 4-0 league win over Topeka High Tuesday night at Hummer Sports Park.

"Obviously, we don't want to share the league title with anybody,'' Rural coach Brian Hensyel said. "We've had to do that a few times over the streak and we don't have any intent on doing that, so (goal) No. 1 was win the game, finish it off and finish an undefeated league season.''

The Junior Blues (13-3-0) also wanted to do whatever they could in Tuesday's regular-season finale to wrap up a high seed for the upcoming Class 6A state playoffs.

"The seeding's crazy right now in 6A and this game could have meant us being anywhere from the two seed to the six seed depending on how it played out, and our chances of advancing in the playoffs are better if we're home, and a win tonight means we're going to play more home games if we stay in the tournament,'' Hensyel said.

"For us this was almost like a first-round playoff game that we had to try to set ourselves up for next week.''

Washburn Rural senior Kevin Monge scored the only goal the Junior Blues would need at the 22:20 mark of the first half and Monge gave Rural a 2-0 halftime lead with a second goal with 18:19 remaining in the half.

Junior Jack Hutchinson gave Rural a 3-0 lead with 34:38 left in the match and freshman Rishi Sandir accounted for the final margin with 3:43 left.

"Rishi has been one of our best (junior varsity) players all year,'' Hensyel said. "He's practiced hard, worked hard, and we needed a guy to step up and play some minutes for us and he comes out and does an outstanding job.

"That's exciting because it shows the depth of the program.

Rural got assists from Monge and junior Nibandh Kulkarni while sophomore Wyatt Arnold picked up the shutout in goal for the Junior Blues. Topeka High fell to 7-8-0 on the season, but Trojan coach Derek Snook was pleased with the way his team battled Rural.

"The effort was definitely there,'' Snook said. "We did some things that we hadn't done in a couple of weeks and all-around the effort was fantastic.''

Topeka High will close out its regular season Thursday night at Seaman while Washburn Rural will be at home next Tuesday for its playoff opener. Playoff pairings will be announced on Saturday.

WASHBURN RURAL 4, TOPEKA HIGH 0

Washburn Rural (13-3-0);2;2;—;4

Topeka High (7-8-0);0;0;—;0

Washburn Rural — Goals: Monge 2, Hutchinson, Sandir. Assists: Monge, Kulkarni. Shutout: Arnold.