Over the past decade, no golf team in Kansas has dominated its respective class quite like Sacred Heart.
 
Since capturing the state championship in 2015, the Knights have ruled Class 2A without much resistance. Not only have the Knights won every state championship since, most came in dominating fashion with victories by such lopsided margins as 57 and 63 strokes since the format went to a two-day tournament in 2021 and 57 and 31 strokes in the previous one-day format.
 
The only real close call during that nine-year title streak was a one-stroke victory over Hoxie in 2022 when the tournament was rained out on the second day.
 
Safe to say the position the Knights found themselves in after Tuesday’s opening round of this year’s state tournament at McPherson’s Turkey Creek Golf Course was a rather unfamiliar one. Not only was Sacred Heart not in command of the tournament, the Knights weren’t even in the lead.
 
Syracuse posted a Day 1 total of 301 to not only grab the lead in the team race but finish 10 strokes ahead of Sacred Heart’s 311.
 
But if there was any panic in his team, Knights coach Patrick Newell sure didn’t see it.
 
“I slept good last night and when I woke up this morning I just had a good feeling,” Newell said. “When we got in the van, the boys were just talking about anything but golf. So they were relaxed. And so we were in a good place.”
 
Newell was dead on in that assessment. Playing from behind, Sacred Heart responded just as Newell anticipated. The Knights came out on fire in Wednesday’s final round, seeing five of the six players spend much of the day in the top 10 with four finishing their second rounds in the top seven for the day.
 
That was good enough to propel the Knights to a 300 team total for the day and a 611 final score. When Syracuse couldn’t maintain the pace it set on the first day and slipped to a 327 in the second round, Sacred Heart added to its decade of dominance with a 17-stroke victory and 10th straight Class 2A state title.
 
“They didn’t press,” Newell said. “It blow my mind how cool there were. They were just so cool under pressure.”
 

 
While that might have been what the Knights portrayed outwardly and how they played on Wednesday, they admitted there were some nerves lying beneath the surface. But also plenty of confidence.
 
“After the first day, definitely a little bit,” Knight sophomore Dominic Matteucci said. “But I felt like we had a good enough team and that we were going to get it done in the end.”
 
Senior Luke Newell agreed.
 
“I’m going to be honest, I was a little on edge, but I wasn’t too nervous about it,” he said. “I knew that we didn’t play our best the first day and that we definitely had a chance the second day to come back, pull it off and eventually end up winning. I wasn’t really that nervous, but I knew we could play better and get it done on the second day.”
 
The team’s lone senior, Newell knew he needed to set the tone, particularly after struggling in Tuesday’s round. The Knights’ No. 1 player and a regional champion with a 69, he wasn’t even one of their counting scores in the first round, shooting a 9-over 79.
 
But he bounced back quite nicely on Wednesday, shooting a 3-over 73 that was Sacred Heart’s best score of the day, helping him to a fourth-place finish overall.
 
“I was extremely motivated to say the least,” he said. “My whole goal for today was to try and not make a bogey. I did pretty well. I had 16 pars, a double bogey and a bogey. For myself, that was getting myself ready.
 
“I gave a little bit of a pep talk to the guys. ‘We don’t want to be the team to lose this streak.’ That was kind of the fuel that got us going for the day. ‘Don’t be the team that lets all the other teams down.’ That was the fire that got us going.”
 

 
It was a message he’d heard from his older brother, Hunter, who graduated last year – one of four starters the Knights had to replace – and one that likely will get passed on with younger brother Ethan joining the mix this season.
 
Likewise, Mattecci gave the team a pep talk prior to the second round that Patrick Newell said was motivating.
 
“He told each of the guys, ‘We just get three on each of the guys, that’s 12 strokes and we win,’” Newell said. “I was watching the phone and the live scoring and three of our guys were done with nine holes and we’d only made up three shots and I was like, ‘Yeah, we’re taking second.’ I seriously did.
 
“Next thing you know and then we’d made up three, then five, then six and when we got to six it was ‘Game on.’ And then I knew we were in it. They all came through big.”
 
“We knew we had a team to continue this legacy,” Matteucci said. “We weren’t going to play bad two days in a row and (Syracuse) played their best. We knew Luke and Will (Tuttle) were going to come back and play great rounds. We knew for sure if we just played how we should play it was going to end up good in the end.”
 
With Newell and Tuttle posting non-counting scores on Tuesday, the Knights got big showings from varsity newcomers juniors Cody Burr (78), Ben Marrs (79) and sophomore Ethan Newell (79) to back Matteucci’s 75 to stay within striking distance of Syracuse. The rounds in the 70s were the first of the season for Burr and Marrs and just the third for Newell.
 
“Had they not done that, we would have had a bigger mountain to climb,” Newell said. “We shot 10 better than our average and if you’d told me we’d shoot 311 on the first day, I’d said, ‘Sign me up!’ But Syracuse shot 20 better than their average and man did they play great.”
 
Not only did Luke bounce back on Day 2, Tuttle did as well, shooting a 76 that was 10 shots better than his first-day 86. Matteucci shot a 74 and Ethan Newell came in with a 76 as the Knights took control of the tourney.
 
Syracuse, meanwhile, couldn’t quite duplicate its stellar first day that saw the Bulldogs put all four scorers in the top 10 with Brody Keller shooting a 74, Charlie Keller a 75, and Brock Keller Johnny TeVelde each with 76s.
 
None of the four made the top 10 the second day with Charlie Keller the lone Bulldog to break 80 with a 79. Brock and Brody Keller each slipped to 82s and Syracuse’s final counting score was an 84 from Jarrett Scott. 
 
This year’s title brought a certain sense of satisfaction after the Knights graduated the four seniors off last year’s title team. 
 
“It’s like any great program that’s been going for a while,” Patrick Newell said. “When Hutch was winning all those football titles and Central in football, all the younger kids are just into it. We had some eighth graders that will be freshmen who were there watching. We’ve got buy-in like that.
 
“I tried to impress on them that we weren’t the favorites. We probably were, just because, but we had so many new faces that we weren’t the favorites. They really came through and I’m just so proud of them.”
 
Matteucci finished third overall with a two-day total of 149, nine shots behind state champion Noah Dowell of Hoxie, who edged Oakley’s Easton Fink by two strokes for the individual title with a 140 total. Luke Newell took fourth at 152 while Ethan Newell tied for ninth (156) and Tuttle worked his way back for a tie for 15th (162).
 
Syracuse was led by Charlie Keller, who took fifth with a 154. Brody Keller tied for ninth at 156, Brock Keller was 13th with a 158 and Scott tied for 18th at 163.
 
Dowell led Hoxie to a third-place team finish with a 643 total with the Indians also putting Sam Watkins in the top 20, tied for 18th at 163.