WICHITA – Wyatt Garden showed up for Blue Valley Southwest soccer tryouts as a freshman and promptly broke his arm. The arm healed, and Garden worked his way up from C-team goalkeeper to junior varsity to varsity reserve and eventually into a starting role.
 
Dane Christensen joined the Timberwolves last year after transferring from California and made his mark with one of the best high school teams in Kansas soccer history, helping them finish as Class 5A champions with a 21-0 record.
 
On Saturday, all the Southwest players’ journeys and those of their counterparts from Maize South led to the pressure cooker of a penalty-kick shootout in the 5A championship match at Stryker Sports Complex. With Garden limiting the Mavericks’ success and Christensen firing his shot into the upper right corner of the net, the senior duo helped Southwest edge Maize South 3-2 for its sixth state title and second in a row.
 
Blue Valley Southwest cashed in on all four of its shootout chances and limited Maize South to one for a victory that completed its season at 15-4-1. The Timberwolves defeated Maize South for the fifth time in seven 5A championship matches.
 

Maize South, facing the Timberwolves for the fifth consecutive year in the finals, finished 18-2-1.
 
“Being a senior and having this for my last game ever, and being a bigger part of it as well, it’s a great feeling,” Christensen said.
 
The Blue Valley Southwest-Maize South rivalry has produced a lot in its brief history. But it never required a shootout to decide the outcome – until Saturday. On a blustery day that aided Maize South in the first half and Southwest in the second, the teams battled to a deadlock after 80 minutes of regulation and two, 10-minute overtime periods.
 
“I think both teams played so hard,” Southwest coach Erik Jones said. “It wasn’t the prettiest of games. The wind had a little bit of a factor with that.
 
“This game could have gone either way. Obviously, it went into PKs and that’s always a coin flip. We liked our chances.”
 
Garden greeted Maize South goalkeeper Ian Smith with a respectful fist bump as the two prepared for the five-round shootout. Smith came on in relief of Mavericks starter Charlie Clinton, who was injured early in the second half on a play that led to an empty-net goal by senior Eli Mick and gave Southwest a 2-1 lead.
 
Smith held the Timberwolves scoreless for more than 51 minutes. But Garden seized the spotlight in the shootout.
 
“I’ve thought about it a lot prior to today,” Garden said. “I had a set way that I was going to go each time, and I was going to stick with it no matter what. It worked perfect for us.”
 

Southwest shooters Mick, freshman Reid Williams, junior Bryden Liem and Christensen all sent their attempts past Smith. Maize South’s Aldo Acosta matched Mick in the first round, but that’s all the state’s top scoring team could produce. Senior Ethan Mbawuike fired above the crossbar, then Garden dove to his left to block Mavericks leading scorer Skylur Staley, setting the stage for Christensen’s clincher.
 
Christensen, an orchestrator for Southwest at midfielder, had missed an opportunity to give the Timberwolves the lead early in the second half. He made a nifty crossover move on a Mavs defender to free himself for a shot from just beyond the box. But his shot struck the right post.
 
In the shootout, Christensen shuffled a couple steps left, fired his shot into the upper right side, then peeled off his jersey to start the Timberwolves’ celebration.
 
“I felt like I was due a little bit,” Christensen said. “I was acting like there weren’t butterflies, but there definitely were.”
 
Maize South, which defeated Southwest for 5A titles in 2022 and 2023, was much more the Timberwolves’ equal than last season, when Southwest dominated the state final to win 7-0. The Mavericks led 1-0 at halftime on Saturday after senior defender Ethan Cole scored off a corner kick in the 26^th minute.
 

Southwest quickly used the wind to its advantage in the second half. Senior Avery Gregoire sent the ball in from the right wing, and it bounced between Mick and Maize South’s Clinton and into the net to tie the score at 1 just three minutes after the break.
 
Six minutes later, Clinton wandered left of the goal to control the ball. But Southwest’s Gavin Gryp applied pressure and took it away, steering it over to Mick for the go-ahead goal, his 20^th of the season.
 
“The momentum shifted a ton the whole game,” Mick said. “The wind was a big factor. The grit that the whole team showed at the end of the game won it. They had the momentum and we locked in and everyone worked hard.”
 
The Mavericks pulled even in the 57^th, as Staley punched in a rebound of a shot that hit the left post. Even with the teams generating attacks and counterattacks at an accelerating pace through the overtimes, it was the last goal until the shootout.
 
“What I will remember from this matchup against Blue Valley Southwest is the grit, the fight, the pain that everybody on the field went through,” Maize South coach Rey Ramirez said. “I think they as well as our players – the boys that fought tonight, the boys that battled tonight – really did dig deeper than what previous years have had to.
 
“The amount of determination and courage that the boys showed from both teams is something that I will remember.”
 

The victory meant a lot on a personal and team level for Southwest, which won its fifth title under Jones and sixth since 2017. The Timberwolves finished on a 10-match winning streak after September losses to Class 6A runner-up Shawnee Mission East and three Missouri teams.
 
“Nobody will understand the pressure they had coming into this season after last year’s undefeated season,” Jones said. “This group still came into the season ranked No. 2 in the nation for whatever that’s worth, and that’s a lot of pressure. They didn’t want to be the team to not continue the success.”
 
Garden, who posted seven shutouts during his senior season, joined Christensen after the title was secured in leading the Mavericks over to their student section, which has become a common sight in recent years at Stryker.
 
“I knew I had a love for soccer not many people have, so I stuck with it even though I struggled,” Garden said. “Thanks to my coaches I got the chance to be here tonight and help my team win.”
 
Newton, which dropped a 2-1 decision to Southwest in Wednesday’s semifinals, bounced back to top De Soto 3-2 in the third-place match.