Kansas State High School Activities Association

Rick Peterson Jr./KSHSAA Covered

Women's Soccer 5/31/2022 10:41:00 AM Rick Peterson Jr., KSHSAA Covered

'Perfect ending:' Sydney Watts powers Aquinas to tough 2-1 win over Mill Valley for 5A title

Aquinas players celebrates their Class 5A state championship after a 2-1 win over Mill Valley.

WICHITA -- It was somewhat uncharted territory for St. Thomas Aquinas this season.

After a scoreless first half in the Class 5A girls' soccer state title game, Mill Valley got on the board early in the second half, and the Saints found themselves trailing for just the second time this season.

Fortunately for Aquinas, the Saints had 38 minutes left to save their undefeated season, which proved to be plenty of time for junior standout Syndey Watts and company.

Watts found the equalizer with about 22 minutes left and then scored the game-winner with 4:03 remaining to send the Saints to a 2-1 win on Saturday at Stryker Sports Complex. It was Aquinas' 18th state championship in program history and second straight 5A title.

"I thought Mill Valley played extremely tough the whole game," Aquinas coach Adam Lamb said. "They made it very, very tough for us. In the end, it was kind of just persistence from us. In the final third, we made some adjustments to get some more players on the ball side of the field, and having more numbers around the ball allowed us to win it a little bit more, and the two goals kind of came from that.

"We just grinded and got the ball in the right areas and let Sydney Watts do what Sydney Watts does."

Freshman midfielder Anisten Cabantec helped create the game-winner, tracking down a ball on the left side and crossing it into the box.

"Anisten's such a good one v. oner. She will sauce anyone on the team up, doesn't matter how good they are," Watts said. "She ripped the ball across and Brooklyn (Marn) made a great run across the front post and let the ball run, which was perfect, because she had me wide open on the back post, and I don't think it could have been a more perfect ending."

"(Cabantac) gets on the ball in the midfield and just kind of finds those passing lanes," Lamb added. "She's able to dribble into spaces that other players don't see, able to see passes that other players don't see. She's awesome on the defensive side as well."

Aquinas Sydney Watts — Aquinas' Sydney Watts and Mill Valley's Kate Ricker look to possess the ball in Saturday's Class 5A title game.

Opportunities were scarce for both teams in the first half, but Mill Valley junior Hadley Lockhart gave the Jaguars the lead two minutes into the second half after her shot deflected off the hands of the keeper and into the net.

The only other time the Saints had trailed was against Blue Valley North, a game in which they went on to win 5-2.

"Mentally, it's a battle that we haven't had all year," Watts said. "Obviously physically, we did a great job, but I think it's the fact that you can pull both of those aspects into it to win a state championship, that's awesome. It's something that I'll remember forever, for sure."

Aquinas, which finished 17-0-2 on the season with ties against St. James Academy and Bishop Miege, had outscored opponents 30-0 in its first four postseason season games, which included a 4-0 win over Maize South in Friday's 5A semifinal.

"Our postseason hasn't been as competitive as it was last year, so that was kind of tough," Lamb said. "We knew this game was going to be really, really hard. We knew Mill Valley had strengths and we knew that they would work really hard, and they did.

"And very rarely this year have we been down, so it was great to see the resilience in the girls going down 1-nil. Luckily, we had 38 minutes to find a way back in."

Aquinas Anisten Cabantec — Aquinas' Anisten Cabantec and Mill Valley's Cecilia Ribares battle for the ball in the Class 5A title game.

Watts put the Saints on the board midway through the second half off a crisp pass from senior Abby Hansen.

"She passed me a phenomenal ball," Watts said. "I don't think it could have been a better ball. We were very fortunate on the chances that we had because I think we capitalized on the majority of them."

"Once we started finding feet and finding players in the right area of the field," Watts added, "I think things just started to go well."

After Watts' second goal, Mill Valley's best opportunity came with about two minutes left senior defender Olivia Page lofted a deep shot on goal that was saved by Aquinas keeper Maggie Payne.

Mill Valley finished its season with an 18-3 mark.

"It was a tough, competitive game," Mill Valley coach Jason Pendleton said. "It was a real high-level game with good athletes. I think that the key was mistakes. They made a mistake and we punished them, and then we made one mistake when it mattered most and they punished us. I think at a high level, it's just about executing in critical moments."

Mill Valley came through a tough regional slate, beating Blue Valley Southwest, 4-0, and St. James Academy, 2-1, before taking a 4-0 win over Eisenhower in the Friday's semifinal.

"It's a great run for us to get here and to elevate our program to be successful," Pendleton said.

The 18th championship for the Aquinas girls gave the program some bragging rights over Aquinas' boys program, which has won 17 state championships.

"The girls' program is now officially one ahead of the boys," Watts said. "That was one of our main goals this year. Adam even wrote it on the locker room and said, 'If we win this game, we beat the boys.' "

"It's a little internal competition between the boys and girls," Lamb said. "Long history of success in the program, so really happy to continue it on."