Washburn Rural junior Emma Krueger (left) battles Seaman freshman Marin Schuler for the ball in Tuesday's 3-0 Junior Blues win over the Vikings. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural didn't have much time to dwell on Monday's heartbreaking road loss to three-time defending Class 6A state girls soccer champion Blue Valley West, with the Junior Blues returning to action 24 hours later.
That turned out to a good thing, with Rural bouncing back with a 3-0 Centennial League victory over Seaman Tuesday night at McElroy Field, improving to 6-2-1 on the season.
"It was probably wasn't real smart with our schedule to play Blue Valley West on a Monday and then come and play a Seaman team that always plays really hard,'' Washburn Rural coach Brian Hensyel said. "That's a tough back to back, but at the end of the year and you get to the playoffs, if you're lucky enough to be one of the last four teams, you do that then, so it's not bad practice for us.''
Washburn Rural, the state runner-up to the Jaguars in the 2018 and '19 state championship games, had Blue Valley West down 2-1 in the closing stages of Monday's game, but West scored twice over the final three minutes to stun the Junior Blues, 3-2.
"We had them and let them off the hook,'' Hensyel said.
Obviously, Rural was still stinging from that defeat, but after a scoreless first half against the 2-2-1 Vikings, the Junior Blues dominated the second half to remain undefeated in league play.
"We had a lot of girls play a lot of minutes last night and it was a really hard, tough, physical game,'' Hensyel said. "Obviously mentally it was tough, too, to flip that switch and come back and play against a team that was really ready to compete today, but I loved the second half.
"We kind of needed the halftime to maybe kind of re-energize and then the second half we controlled the game.''
Washburn Rural got the only goal it would need about 12 minutes into the second half on a shot from senior Joy Ngibuini and the Junior Blues got insurance goals from junior Emma Krueger with 10:55 remaining and from junior Belle Kennedy with just 1:04 left.
Senior Brynn Fitzgibbons and junior Hunter McWilliams were credited with assists while sophomore Hailey Beck picked up the shutout in goal for the Junior Blues.
Seaman will be back in action Wednesday, hosting St. James Academy in a 6:15 p.m. non-league game while Washburn Rural will travel to Bishop Carroll Friday for a 6:30 p.m. non-league contest.
WASHBURN RURAL 3, SEAMAN 0
Seaman (2-2-1) 0 0 -- 0
Washburn Rural (6-2-1) 0 3 -- 3
Washburn Rural -- Goals: Joy Ngibuini, Emma Krueger, Belle Kennedy. Assists: Brynn Fitzgibbons, Hunter McWilliams. Shutout: Hailey Beck.
