Maize South senior Caden Wait had a front row seat to the greatest show on the pitch in Kansas over the last four years.

Wait saw his teammate, fellow senior Vitor Geromel, score all of his goals on the way to setting the Kansas all-time state record. But that's not just the 130 goals that Geromel scored for the Mavs.

“Me and this guy grew up together since first grade, playing on the sand field at recess,” Geromel said.

That means Wait was there for nearly every goal that Geromel has scored, starting in elementary school and continuing all the way through No. 130 to put the Mavs in the lead of this year’s state final, their third straight championship match together.

So it was a little bit of a surprise when it was Wait who ended up being the one who delivered the final goal of their storied high school soccer careers.

Following a Blue Valley Southwest tying the score late in the Class 5A state championship match on Nov. 4 at Spring Hill High School, Wait did the opposite of the definition found in the dictionary under his last name.

Maize South quickly pushed into Timberwolves territory to set up a free kick. Wait moved into the penalty box, positioning himself for a header to score the game-winning goal in his team’s 2-1 victory in the state final.

His response to that ending.

“No words,’ Wait said. “I’m just in disbelief.”
 

Maize South head coach Rey Ramirez said he was not surprised, at least not by the team’s prompt response to Blue Valley Southwest’s lone goal.

“Our boys have shown a tremendous level of resiliency and perseverance,” Ramirez said, pointing to the team overcoming a 1-0 deficit to St. Thomas Aquinas in the state semifinals the day before. “They clawed back, got back into the game and scored before the half was over.”

In that one, Maize South scored a couple more goals in the second half to ride into the state final with momentum of a 3-1 victory. But to win the state title, the Mavs needed to prevent Blue Valley Southwest from taking over that role from them.

“Rather than the tides changing against us, our boys stepped up,” Ramirez said. “They took that challenge and they got back into the lead.”

Ramirez said it was in those moments that the team showed the growth that he sees as the difference between this run of back-to-back state titles and the team’s three state runner-up finishes that preceded it.

“I think it’s that maturity, that confidence, that leadership, that our players have really grown into as a soccer program through the years,” Ramirez said. “Something that we were possibly lacking in the past, but now our boys have shown that they are there.”

One thing that’s definitely been there for the last four years has been the scoring ability of Geromel. After scoring twice in the state semifinals, he added one more goal to his all-time state record when Geromel broke the scoreless stalemate that remained for more than an hour of match time in the state final.
 

“In the first half, our side needed to make defensively and in our midfield,” Ramirez said. “I think that we weren’t finding our forwards efficiently enough.”

Ramirez said the team moved one forward to midfielder and asked the defenders to be more patient with their tackling and challenging, which had led to three players earning yellow cards in the first half.

“They were challenging a little too early, a little bit too high up the field,” Ramirez said.

With those defenders doing a better job of being patient and letting the game come to them, Maize South started to control the action for the majority of the second half. The Timberwolves defense held up for a while, but the Mavs stayed composed waiting for the right opportunity.

As the game neared the midway point of the second half, Maize South ended up getting the ball inside the right edge of the penalty box. Geromel made the first touch, but had two Timberwolves players, one on each side, with two more closing in fast.

To try and get out of this spot, Geromel attempted to flick the ball over Southwest senior defender Michael Bernabe, with the plan of going around him to have a clear shot on the goal. Instead Bernabe deflected the ball with his hand, drawing the ref's whistle and setting up a penalty kick for Geromel.

“Vitor’s a very creative player,” Ramirez said. “When it comes to penalty kicks, when it comes to the biggest moments in soccer, he’s our go-to player. He stepped up like we knew he would.”
 

On the penalty kick, Geromel got the goalie to hesitate to the right side of the goal before his kick sent the ball into the net left of center around the diving goalie.

As he started to take off toward the Maize South student section, Geromel clearly hesitated as he waited for his teammates to catch up with him for the goal celebration. When they did, he leaped into the air and screamed. The rest of the team continued on an extended celebration as they ran past the student section to get back to the other side of the field for the ensuing kickoff.

But Geromel quickly completed his roaring celebration, the look on his face resetting as if to say he had already turned his focus back to the match. His teammates seemed to take his cue and got ready for a tough final 20-plus minutes as the Timberwolves aggressively tried to respond with a goal of their own.

Blue Valley Southwest would ultimately get that equalizer halfway through that final stretch. The Timberwolves were finally able to spring their wingers, thanks to a perfect through ball by sophomore Eli Mick up the field to Alvarez. Before Alvarez could take his shot, he got taken down in the penalty box.

Alvarez, a left-footed kicker, basically duplicated Geromel’s penalty kick, but in reverse. He also waited for his teammates to follow him along the Blue Valley Southwest fan section. Alvarez did a flyby with his arms outstretched, teammates clung to both of his shoulders.

But the Timberwolves were not able to turn their focus back to the match quite as successfully as the Mavs did after their first goal.
 

Instead, Maize South responded almost instantly by getting the ball down the field and into a position for a free kick. That’s when Wait did his thing and immediately stole the momentum right back for his team.

“They always say the next five minutes are really important in the game,” Timberwolves head coach Erik Jones said. “We make a foul in our defensive third. … It ricocheted in the box and they were on the end of it. We got a little unlucky on that.

“There’s highs and lows in the game. We went from being really high to really low, but there was a still time on the clock."

Blue Valley Southwest tried to attack over the final 12 minutes, but were not quite able to get the ball into the net a second time.

“That’s just kind of the way these games go,” Jones said. “But as far as our performance, I don’t think we could have asked for a better effort. They were great all season, they’re such a complete team. We give a lot of credit to Maize South, they’re also a great team.”

This is the fifth time these two teams have faced off in the state final. Blue Valley Southwest won the first three matchups in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

Despite the history, neither of the Mavs’ goal scorers in this one felt a particular way about both of their state titles being won against this Southwest team. 
 

Geromel and Wait, who were both part of the 2021 team that lost to the Timberwolves in that year’s state final, said earning both state championship wins over the same team which has been their program’s biggest obstacle to getting that first state title did not hold extra significance for them.

“No sir, just another team,” Wait said.

Geromel admitted that beating this opponent did add a little something for the program and his head coach.

“It’s huge for this program, obviously for Rey, everybody that’s come through,” Geromel said. “We’ve been so close before, other seniors who passed through and we’ve had amazing teams. 

“Just showing these past couple years that we really can get there and we can win these games. It’s just been a lot of hard work and we’ve been able to make it happen.”

Geromel also credited his coach for this victory: “Coach Rey gave us a game plan. We stuck to it and it was a great game plan. It worked and we just kept fighting, putting Wichita on the map and saying that we’re a school that can compete.”

For Ramirez, he credits Blue Valley Southwest and his team’s other state opponents in having a profound effect on the development of his program. Ramirez said the Maize South program, both the players and the coaches, have learned and improved by consistently facing great competition like the Timberwolves.
 

“It is the competition that has helped our program progress,,” Ramirez said. “It has helped our program develop and improve, ultimately achieving last year’s state championship and this year’s state championship. That competition and the quality of opponents that we have faced in the final four of state and throughout the regular season.

“There’s many programs in Wichita that have grown tremendously and it’s because of our opponents.”

But Geromel and Wait are also quick to credit the competition they faced from within the program. Wait credits his own development as a defender to his battles over the last decade with a talented offensive player like Geromel.

“We grew up defending and attacking each other,” Wait said. “It’s always been fun, always had that super big rivalry either at practice or anywhere else.”

Geromel reciprocated Wait’s comments about how much their journey together helped each player hone their skills through the years. 

“Every practice, there’s no guy harder to go against than him and (fellow senior) Dylan Gorman in practices," Geromel said.

Maize South’s senior class, which includes Geromel, Wait, Gorman, Brock Ellis, Miles Edwards, Dominic Lester, Isaac Carpenter, Spencer Rich, Nicholas Emes and T Goode, could not imagine a better finish.

“It feels perfect,” Germoel said. “The records are cool, but I’d rather have the back-to-back. To me, that means the world. Ever since freshman year, I knew this class of seniors are special. This team was special.

“It feels like the only right way to end it.”
 

SALINA SOUTH RALLIES FROM 2-0 DEFICIT AGAINST AQUINAS TO WIN IN OT

St. Thomas Aquinas fired out to 2-0 lead just 26 minutes into the third-place final, but Salina South never gave up as Cougars orchestarted a comeback on a the way to a 3-2 overtime win.

Saints senior defender Andrew Muckerman deliver the first goal of the match just nine minutes into the action. Senior forward Liam Ryan would push that lead to 2-0 with a goal of his own a little past the midway point of the first half.

Salina South responded five minutes later when Cougars senior forward Seth Flores found junior forward Rylan Snell for a goal, cutting the deficit to one goal heading into halftime. It took awhile, but the Cougars ended up tying the game 25 minutes into the second half. Snell scored again, this time with an assist from junior midfielder Brett Jones.

With neither team able to score another goal over the final 15 minutes of regulation, the match headed to overtime.

Salina South ended up founding an opportunity seven minutes into the extra period. The Cougars launched a long pass down the field, which the Saints goalie slightly misjudged as he approached for a header for away from the goal. Flores spun through contact with the goalie, finding a clear path to the goal as he kicked in the game winner.
 

MAIZE SOUTH 2, BLUE VALLEY SOUTHWEST 1
 
Maize South (20-1-0) … 0 … 2 … -- … 2

Blue Valley Southwest (17-3-1) … 0 … 1 ... – … 1
 
Maize South – Goals: Geromel, Wait Name. Assists: None.
 
Blue Valley Southwest – Goals: Alvarez. Assists: None.

SALINA SOUTH 3, ST. THOMAS AQUINAS 2 OT
 
Salina South (15-6-0) … 1 … 1 … 1 .. – … 3
 
St. Thomas Aquinas (12-8-1) … 2 … 0 … 0 … -- … 2
 
Salina South – Goals: Snell 2, Flores. Assists: Flores, Jones.
 
St. Thomas Aquinas – Goals: Muckerman, Ryan. Assists: None.