A ‘landslide’ of goals gives Henry Clay its fourth boys state soccer championship
For what seemed like an eternity, Henry Clay and Louisville Collegiate threatened each other’s goal but failed to connect a final touch with the back of the net in Saturday’s KHSAA Boys State Soccer Tournament Championship game at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School.
It was only about 60 minutes, and it’s the next 20 that will go down in Blue Devils soccer history. Because once Henry Clay started scoring, it could barely stop.
With two goals from senior forward Marco Messerli and a goal apiece for Braden Cundiff, Shukuru Hamisi, Will Potter and Vincent Wakilongo, the Blue Devils defeated Collegiate 6-1 to capture the school’s fourth boys state soccer championship and second in six years.
“This is the perfect ending, man,” Messerli said. “This is all the hard work, the multiple years coming together. I love these boys. And to bring one home to Clay is just really special for this program.”
Messerli opened the floodgates with an incredible chip over Collegiate goalkeeper Crew Hartlage for a 1-0 lead with 20:32 left in the game.
Hartlage came off his line to the top of the 18 to try to gather a long Henry Clay pass from midfield. As the keeper and his back line converged, a Collegiate defender tried to flick the ball away, but it instead came bounding at Messerli, who met it with his right foot on a volley and looped it over Collegiate’s scrambling defense and into the goal from 25 yards out.
“I saw it coming, and I saw Crew came out,” Messerli said, shrugging about how difficult it must have been. “I’ve missed plenty of those, but it was awesome that I had a chance to finish one.”
A grandstand packed with Henry Clay students and fans barely had a chance to calm down before Braden Cundiff ran onto a deflected cross that came to him at the left post for a 2-0 lead a minute later.
“It was like a landslide,” Cundiff said. “Once that first goal went in, everything shifted, and we just kept getting more and more.”
Six minutes later, Hamisi knifed through the back line to free himself for a right-footed shot into the right corner. Exactly 1:02 after that, Potter rocketed a long-distance shot to the left of Collegiate’s keeper for a 4-0 lead. Messerli got his second goal on an assist by Elliot Tiennot with just under three minutes to play. Wakilongo had a go from 25 yards out with 38 seconds left.
“Scoring that first goal was paramount in games like this,” Henry Clay coach Jason Behler said. “Once you get that first goal, the other team has to open up a little bit, and that’s really where we thrive.”
Collegiate (24-3) avoided the shutout with a penalty kick by Alex Shannon after a Henry Clay foul in the box with 2:18 left.
Henry Clay senior midfielder Connor Taylor earned the tournament’s most valuable player award. He said he never doubted his team’s ability to win a state title.
“We knew we had a talented group,” Taylor said. “We were all buds. We all grew up together. So, we knew this is what we wanted. It means everything to us.”
Behler has now led Henry Clay (21-3-4) to two of its four state titles. His other came in 2019 with another senior-led team. Many players on this squad came to Henry Clay two years removed from that postseason glory. Now they have some of their own.
“It’s just a phenomenal group of seniors and leaders,” Behler said. “I really enjoyed coaching them for the last three and a half months — the last three and a half years for a lot of them. A lot of them have been playing on varsity since they were freshmen or sophomores. And I’m sad to see them go, because they’re just a phenomenal group of young men — great students, great people and, as you can see, phenomenal soccer players.”
Lexington Catholic falls to Sacred Heart in girls championship
Playing with a determination to avoid the kind of finals upset it suffered last season, No. 1 Sacred Heart captured this year’s KHSAA Girls’ State Soccer Championship with a 3-1 win over No. 2 Lexington Catholic on Saturday at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School.
But the Knights made Louisville’s Valkyries work for it and got off to a blistering start. LexCath players rattled the woodwork twice in the first 10 minutes and stuck to a strategy of harassing Sacred Heart all over the field.
When Sacred Heart forward Caitlin Chase finally broke through for a goal with 48.1 seconds left in the first half, the Vanderbilt commit pumped both fists in celebration as her teammates rushed to her to celebrate the 1-0 lead. Fellow senior Isabella Bostock got the ball away from two LexCath defenders and dropped a pass into Chase’s stride for a well-struck shot into the bottom left corner.
“It was such a relief. It was just so awesome and so heartwarming to be able to get the first goal for our team,” Chase said. “We got the momentum up and then we just played our game.”
From there, the Valkyries settled into their kind of game, dictating possession and creating opportunities.
Megan Schrader, another one of Sacred Heart’s 15 seniors, ran onto a loose ball well outside the 18-yard box and fired a shot into the top left corner for a 2-0 lead less than four minutes into the second half.
A few minutes later, Bostock scored on an assist from Chase to make it 3-0.
“In the first half, the first 10 to 15 minutes, it was really hectic. You could see ‘championship game’ getting to them and stuff like that,” said Sacred Heart coach Shaun Francis, whose Valkyries lost 4-3 to Bethlehem in last year’s state finals after struggling in the first half and ceding an early lead. “But at halftime, we spoke to them, and we told them to just play with freedom. Play the game like how they know to play the game. Don’t panic. Just enjoy the game and just enjoy the moment.”
Lexington Catholic avoided a shutout when Joanna Bryant capitalized on a Sacred Heart hand ball in the box and scored her penalty kick to cut the Knights’ deficit to 3-1 with 27:56 left in the game.
But LexCath couldn’t threaten any further as Sacred Heart allowed just two shots in the second half. The Knights had five shots total to Sacred Heart’s 11.
“I thought today’s game was a great high school game. The better team won,” Lexington Catholic coach Terry Quigley said. “We stressed them, and we played with them, and I couldn’t be prouder.”
For Sacred Heart (24-1-2), it was the program’s eighth state title in 13 finals appearances. Lexington Catholic (21-3-4) has been less successful in state championship games with one title and, now, nine runner-up finishes.
Quigley, Kentucky girls high school soccer’s winningest coach, always puts each season in perspective and appreciated this one.
“You know, in the Bluegrass State Games, we played three games, and we were 1-1-1, and I thought this is going to be one long season. And I meant it,” Quigley said. “Then they just turned it around, right away. They play with heart and they get along. It was a fun year.”
Boys All-Tournament Team
Jax Benton, Henderson County; Silas Damm, Woodford County; Axel Vasquez, Powell County; Austin Bush, Campbell County; Lukas Humphrey and Jack Quisenberry, Daviess County; Amadeus Martin and Enrique Gabardo, Oneida Baptist Institute; Crew Hartlage, Peter Caborn and Josh Rairick, Louisville Collegiate; Braden Cundiff, Marco Messerli and Connor Taylor (MVP), Henry Clay.
Girls All-Tournament Team
Savannah Dodd, Marshall County; Faith Burnside, Boyd County; Kennedy Crowley, Campbell County; Kaytee Parish, Madisonville; Blair Hartman and Adison Welsh, South Oldham; Brooklyn Mullins and Haley Combs, North Laurel; Joanna Bryant, Izzy Skinner and Sara-Kate Barnes, Lexington Catholic; Ava Hendrick, Isabella Bostock and Caitlin Chase (MVP), Sacred Heart.
This story was originally published November 3, 2024 at 8:00 AM.
