Rural plays Emporia

By Paul Carr

The Capital-Journal

For the third straight year, the Washburn Rural girls soccer team had its season ended in the state quarterfinals.

Sophomore Tina Commons scored twice for Emporia, propelling the visiting Spartans to a 2-1 victory on Tuesday night.

The Centennial League foes, who had tied earlier this season, played a scoreless first half before Commons opened the scoring in the 43rd minute. Ashley Michels sent a corner kick to the far post, where Commons headed the ball off a Rural defender into the net for a 1-0 lead.

"We've been working on our corner kicks a lot recently, knowing that we needed to score on them in this game," Commons said.

Twenty minutes later, Commons found space on the right side, took a pass from Kelsey Van Sickle and chipped a shot over Rural keeper Amanda Prosser from just inside the box to double the Spartan margin.

"I wasn't quite sure if the second goal would go in," Commons said. "But it had just enough on it, and the goal relieved everybody on the team."

The Junior Blues refused to quit, as freshman Melanie Hall turned the corner on the defense down the right flank, depositing a low shot into the goal with under eight minutes remaining. Rural had other opportunities in the closing moments but could not capitalize to level the score.

"I was very proud of the comeback," Rural coach Lionel Suarez said. "We stepped up and scored that goal. With a little break here or there we probably could have tied it. It just wasn't our night."

Emporia head coach Jason Malaschak was thrilled with his team's triumph, which avenged a loss to Rural in last year's state tournament.

"To come here and beat them means a lot because they are a great soccer team," Malaschak said. "Doing it on their own field, which is a huge home field advantage, is amazing, too. It makes it really nice."

But Emporia is not content with simply reaching the state semifinals on Friday in Overland Park.

"Our goal this year was to make it to the final four," a grinning Malaschak added. "But we're going there on Friday to win."

Emporia (15-3-1) 0 2 --- 2

Washburn Rural (15-2-2) 0 1 --- 1

Emporia --- Goals: Commons 2. Assists: Michels, Van Sickle.

Washburn Rural --- Goal: Hall.

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