Gabe Liston’s timing was impeccable.
 
With Olathe East clinging to a 1-0 lead with just over 7 minutes left in Saturday’s Class 6A state championship game at Hummer Sports Park in Topeka, Liston found himself in the biggest moment of his career.
 
East had just been whistled for a penalty in the box, setting up a penalty kick situation for Shawnee Mission West. In his first year as East’s starting goalkeeper, Liston had the weight of a potential state championship resting squarely on his shoulders.
 
And he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
 
“What can you do? I’m glad it was me,” Liston said. “I was just trying to stay focused, stay locked in. I knew my team needed me so I did what I had to.”
 
Liston came up with the save of his career, blocking the penalty kick by West’s Brian Andrades Lara.
 
It was his first save on a penalty kick this season for Liston and it preserved East’s 1-0 state championship win.
 
“Luckily, that’s the one I saved,” Liston said.
 

 
The state championship was the fifth in East’s rich history and first since 2018. The victory not only capped a 17-4-0 season for the Hawks, but also completed their redemption tour in the postseason.
 
Each of East’s last three victories – Shawnee Mission East in the quarterfinals, Dodge City in the semifinals and SM West in the finals – avenged regular-season losses to those squads.
 
“When we got on the bus Tuesday night to take on Shawnee Mission East, we told them, ‘This is the Revenge Tour and this is Stop One,’” East coach Keeley O’Grady said. “When we got on the bus after that win, we were ready for Stop Two. Today, they were like, ‘We’re ready for Stop Three.’
 
“It was a great run for us and it was time for them to get this trophy.”
 

 
“We knew we could beat all these teams and that we were at the top of the state and we played like it,” East junior defender Duncan Black said. “When we played them last time, we didn’t play to our potential. We just brought that out at state.”
 
Black had a big hand in the Hawks making to the final four, flicking a pass by Payson Hoffstatter to teammate Dylan Segovia, who scored in the 109^th minute of a 1-0 four-overtime quarterfinal win over Shawnee Mission East. After the Hawks knocked off Dodge City 3-2 in the semifinals on Aidan Boehmer’s overtime goal, Black and Hoffstatter teamed up again for the lone goal of the championship match.
 
With 14:30 left in the first half, Hoffstatter sent a free kick into the box. West goalkeeper Luke DeAngelis appeared to have a bead on the ball, but when the ball sailed over his outstretched hands, Black got his head on it and deflected it past a handful of West defenders into the net for what stood as the game-winner.
 
“I saw the ball in the air and the keeper come out and I knew it was going to be me,” Black said. “I saw he was going to overshoot it a little bit so I backed up and got my head on it. I just had to put something on it and hope it goes in. When it did, I had to go crazy, it was an insane moment.
 
“It’s huge. It gives you that momentum and that motivation to hold on to the end.”
 

 
East’s defense made sure it held up with Liston coming up big in both halves.
 
With just under eight minutes left in the first half, West got its best scoring opportunity of the half. But Liston made a diving stop of the shot, keeping the Vikings off the scoreboard.
 
“The first save always gets me going,” Liston said. “Once I get my first one in, it’s go from there.”
 
As big as that save was, it paled in comparison to his save on the penalty kick with 7:12 left in the game. Liston said he took deep breaths as Andrades Lara lined up his shot and then gambled and dove left.
 
“I want to say I had a clue, but it’s a guess,” he said of his strategy for the PK. “It’s always a guess.”
 

 
West put plenty of pressure on East in the final seven minutes, but never really got another good scoring chance as the Hawk defense smothered West’s talented scoring unit led by Sergio Hernandez, Kevin DeAndrade and Phil Mutantika.
 
“We talked about jockeying and delaying and timing their turn in space,” O’Grady said. “Just make them have to make something special and break them down.”
 
“I kept telling them, ‘It’s going to come. It’s going to come,’” West coach Trevor Rosewicz said. “All I wanted as a coach was for the boys to have a chance. We absolutely had chances and were unfortunate on the penalty kick. Brian put a good ball on it and their keeper made a great save.
 
“Keeley did a great job getting his team ready to play. They were organized, they were composed and they had good defensive shape. They were ready to play today. We played them a month ago and this was a different team than what we saw then. They played a great game.”
 
West finished with a 15-4-2 record.
 
East had lost to SM East 1-0 in overtime in the regular season and also fell to Dodge City 4-1 and to West 3-1. But the Hawks turned the tables on all three, completing the championship season.
 
“It was all revenge,” Liston said. “That’s all it is. Eating at you. When they beat you once, but it’s hard to beat a good team twice. We showed them that today.” 
 

 
Washburn Rural claimed third place, getting a header from Griffin Heinen with 56 seconds left to beat Dodge City 2-1.
 
The game appeared headed to overtime, but the Junior Blues got a corner kick with time running out and Heinen headed the ball perfectly past Dodge City goalkeeper Geovanni De Luna for the game-winner.
 
The goal was the lone score of the second half. Rural opened the scoring in the first half quickly as Hayden Shriver’s header found the back of the net just 1:28 into the game. Dodge City tied it at the 19:12 mark on a goal by leading scorer Aron Martinez.
 
Rural had lost to Dodge City in last year’s third-place match by the same 2-1 score as Saturday’s game. The Junior Blues finished the season 19-2-0 while Dodge City ended with an 18-3-0 record.
 

 
CLASS 6A
 
AT HUMMER SPORTS PARK, TOPEKA
 
CHAMPIONSHIP
 
OLATHE EAST 1, SHAWNEE MISSION WEST 0
 
Shawnee Mission West (15-4-2) … 0 … 0 … -- … 0
 
Olathe East (17-4-0) … 1 … 0 … -- … 1
 
Olathe East – Goals: Black. Assists: Hoffstatter. Shutout: Liston.
 
 
THIRD PLACE
 
WASHBURN RURAL 2, DODGE CITY 1
 
Washburn Rural (19-2-0) … 1 … 1 … -- … 2
 
Dodge City (18-3-0) … 1 … 1 … -- … 1
 
Washburn Rural – Goals: Shriver, Heinen. Assists: Heinen, Rutschmann.
 
Dodge City – Goal: Martinez.