- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.newsst
Coming off a breakout 13-4-1 campaign last fall, Topeka West boys soccer picked up where it left off Tuesday at Hayden, opening the 2025 season with a 7-0 romp past the Wildcats.
Sophomore forward Camilo Garcia scored the first two goals on Tuesday at Hayden as Topeka West rolled to a 7-0 season-opening win. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"I think they played a style that we all know their capable of and that they are comfortable with,'' West coach Josh Kutter said of his team. "So, by them playing their style and not changing their style to anyone else's style, I am really happy about that. They played their game.''
The Chargers scored the only goal they would need at the 35:17 mark of the opening half on a shot from sophomore forward Camilo Garcia and Garcia made it 2-0 with his second goal a little over five minutes later.
Junior forward Diego Gonzalez-Talavera had a goal and four assists on Tuesday at Hayden in Topeka West's 7-0 season-opening win. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Junior forward Diego Gonzalez-Talavera put West up 3-0 at the 24:50 mark of the first half and junior forward Henry Miller gave the Chargers a commanding 4-0 halftime advantage with a shot with 7:09 left before the break.
- Details
By TODD FERTIG
TopSports.news
The Washburn Rural boys soccer team, eager to build upon its third-place finish in last year’s Class 6A state tournament, flexed its muscle Tuesday. The Junior Blues handled Shawnee Heights 6-0 at McElroy Field in the season opener for both teams.
Washburn Rural senior Dylan Willingham (19) scored a pair of goals in Tuesday's 6-0 season-opening win over Shawnee Heights. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
The Junior Blues ambushed the visiting T-Birds out of the gate, putting a goal on the board just six minutes into the season. Liam Morrison headed a free kick from fellow senior Brandon Hamilton inside the right post to get the ball rolling.
Senior Dylan Willingham gave the Junior Blues a commanding 2-0 lead with a free kick off a red-card penalty just before the intermission.
‘Everybody was excited to play our first game,” said Washburn Rural coach Brian Hensyel. “Playing a city school, a rival school, a lot of kids know each other. So, we knew it would be a high energy game early. Both teams really were playing hard.
“The first goal was a great goal for us just to kind of gain the momentum. It was a pretty even game up until the red card and the second goal.”
With the T-Birds playing short-handed for most of the night – they incurred a second red card early in the second half – Washburn Rural was able to substitute liberally and focus on fundamentals.
“We have a big senior class, a lot of guys who have experience, but we have guys coming off the bench who haven’t played a lot of varsity minutes,” Hensyel said. “So, when you get an opportunity to do that, we want to give them that extra experience.
“Once we got that advantage, we talked about just calming down and, you know, not just smashing the ball forward. ‘Can we pass it a little bit? Can we make them work?’”
- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Class 4A No. 2-ranked Hayden volleyball fought through plenty of ups and downs in Tuesday's home quadrangular at the Bueltel Activity Center.
Hayden volleyball celebrates a kill from sophomore Hailey Schmidtlein (22) Tuesday as the Wildcats went 3-0 on the night. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
But Corrinne McGreevy's Wildcats were at their best when it counted the most, knocking off 6A foes Shawnee Mission East, Manhattan and perennial city and state power Washburn Rural to improve to 4-0 on the young 2025 season.
"I am so proud of these girls,'' McGreevy said. "I always tell the girls, it's not going to be perfect, but they have to stick together on the court and if you have grit and you stay together and you can stay in control, great things are going to happen.
"Three things you can control -- being a good teammate, your communication and how hard you work -- and if they can do all three of those things great things are going to happen and that's exactly what they did. I believe that my girls can play on any high school volleyball court in the nation because they believe in themselves and they stick together.''
After dispatching SM East 25-16, 25-19 in its opening match of the night, Hayden, third in 4A last season, dropped a 25-21 decision in its first set against Manhatttan and got down early in the second set before rallying to take the match with 25-23 and 25-17 wins.
Hayden senior Ella Foster sets the ball in Tueday's home volleyball quad. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"I think something flipped in our mind and we were like, 'This is our game, we came here to win and they're not beating us in our house,' so we came out and showed up that second set and from there on, we pushed through,'' senior Ella Foster said.
Spurred on by the win over the Indians, the Wildcats responded with their best volleyball of the night, closing out their 3-0 night with a 25-23, 25-15 win over the No. 5-ranked (6A) Junior Blues.
- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Former Seaman star Robbie Rea has been named head baseball coach at Central Oklahoma after serving as an assistant coach for the Bronchos the previous three seasons.
Robbie Rea
"Robbie Rea is ready to become a head coach, and I'm thrilled that he will get that opportunity at UCO," Central Oklahoma vice-president for athletics Stan Wagnon said in a UCO release. "Robbie's background as an accomplished player and his broad experience coaching throughout the region are tremendous assets that will help him to recruit and maintain relationships with student-athletes in college baseball's changing climate.
"I look forward to supporting Robbie in this new role, along with his wife Rachel and their young family."
Rea was a three-time Class 5A state champion for Seaman and was named Kansas State Player of the Year.
He went on to earn All-Big 12 honors as a second baseman for the Oklahoma State Cowboys after earning All-American honors at Cowley during his junior college career.
Rea guided the pitching staff at Central Oklahoma as an assistant coach, with the Bronchos winning 105 games since Rea joined the staff and qualifying for the NCAA Division II Baseball Championship in each of the past two seasons.
Central Oklahoma went 32-19 in Rea's first season as an assistant coach, then 37-16 the following year in 2024. Last spring, Rea and the Bronchos went 36-17 and won the MIAA postseason championship for the first time since joining the league 13 years ago.
UCO has ranked in the top three in the MIAA in staff ERA each of the past three seasons. The Bronchos were second in 2023 (5.12), first in 2024 (4.60), and third this past season (5.21).
UCO's pitching staff has put up 1,274 strikeouts, 8.5 per nine innings, in three seasons with Rea at the helm.
Prior to going to UCO, Rea made stops at MIAA schools Newman and Northeastern State. He also spent time at Cowley College in Kansas as well as Abiline Christian in Texas.
Central Oklahoma returns 22 players from last year's squad, including two-time All-MIAA pitcher Brett Pense. The Bronchos will return to the field in February. A complete schedule will be announced later this fall.
Robbie's younger brother, Butch Rea, is an assistant coach for the Bronchos.
- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University football opened the Zach Watkins era with a hard-earned 20–17 win non-conference win over Truman State Saturday afternoon at Yager Stadium.
Washburn (1-0) had to overcome a 10-0 first-quarter deficit and scored 20 unanswered points to take a 20-10 lead before using a clutch drive to run the final 4 minutes, 20 seconds off the clock and close out the victory in front of 4,025 fans.
Zach Watkins picked up his first win as a head coach on Saturday, with Washburn topping Truman State 20-17 in Yager Stadium. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
"Wins will never come easy, especially in the MIAA and with a quality, playoff-caliber opponent like Truman State, so that was a great game for us to overcome some early adversity, battle back when things weren't going our way, and then to end the game with the offense on the field closing the game out was really special,'' Watkins said.
Saturday's win was not only a successful debut for Watkins as a head coach but was a big day for quarterback Justin Lewis and place-kicker Aidan Battle in their first games as Ichabods.
Justin Lewis passed for 352 yards and two touchdowns in Washburn's 20-17 season-opening win over Truman State Saturday. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Lewis, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound graduate transfer from Merrimack, completed 33 of 42 passes for 352 yards and two touchdowns on the day and at one point completed a school and MIAA single-game record 20 straight passes.
Battle, a 5-6, 170 Butler Community College transfer, was also a difference-maker for Washburn, contributing eight points on the day with two field goals and two extra points, including a 51-yard field goal with 10:27 remaining that proved to be the difference in the game.
"We knew he had the leg strength and a little bit of wind and we knew we could get there, so I'll never shy away with him back there,'' Watkins said.
Former MIAA foe Truman State (0-1) struck first, marching 68 yards in nine plays before quarterback Dylan Hair found Jackson Overton for a 23-yard touchdown at the 8:22 mark of the opening quarter.
Truman added to its lead later in the quarter on a 32-yard field goal from Vinni Calvaruso to go up 10–0, but Washburn dominated the second quarter behind Lewis and junior wide receiver Chase Allen-Jackman.
Lewis connected with Allen-Jackman for a 16-yard touchdown to put the Ichabods (1-0) on the board.
Then, after Battle connected on a 37-yard field goal to tie the game at 10–10 midway through the second quarter, Lewis and Allen-Jackman connected again with 55 seconds left before halftime, this time from 27 yards out to give Washburn a 17–10 halftime advantage.
"That guy's unbelievable,'' Lewis said of Allen-Jackman. "He's done an awesome job since the spring, just me and him having communication on the field. I trust him that he's going to get open every single time, he's a tough guy to guard.''
Neither team was able to break through in the third quarter before Battle connected on his clutch 51-yard field goal early in the fourth stanza to give WU its biggest lead of the game at 20-10. Battle's 51-yarder was one yard shy of the school record of 52 yards set in 1972 by Russ Hill against Northern Colorado and Charles Goodnight against Emporia State in 1985.
