After losing a heartbreaker to Blue Valley Northwest in the 6A state semifinals, the Dodge City boys soccer team had one more opportunity to end the season with a win.

In Saturday’s consolation game the Red Demons beat last years state champions, Olathe East, 4-1 to earn the third place trophy. Their win on Saturday gave them a school record 19-wins and their first ever win in the state finals. In their previous two trips to state, the Demons finished in fourth place.

“It was the goal that I was looking for as a team,” head coach Saul Hernandez said. “I played more guys who weren’t able to play on Friday to get them more experience. Hopefully we make it back next year and those guys will have experience under their belt.”

 After trailing 1-0, Dodge City came to life to score four goals in the final 26 minutes of the game to secure their first ever win at the state finals. It was sophomore Joshua Don Juan and senior Leo Lopez who split the four goals.

“I felt like they weren’t having fun and were just a little too uptight,” Hernandez said about the halftime adjustments. “I told them that we didn’t have anything to lose and that we needed to just play more relaxed.”

In Hernandez’s first year as the Red Demons head coach, Dodge City (19-2) had their most successful season in school history. The team’s two losses were to 5A state runner-up St. Thomas Aquinas and Blue Valley Northwest, the 6A state champion.

“It was a successful season,” Hernandez said. “We didn’t come back with the hardware that we wanted but the boys really did an excellent job handling the situations.”

In WAC competition, the Red Demons outscored their opponents 40-5 on their way to a undefeated WAC title. In 21 games this year, Dodge City outscored their opponents 94-11 and finished with 14 shutouts.

By John Zetmeir
Dodge City Daily Globe

The Dodge City Red Demons knew that as they continued to win, the games would get harder and the opponents would get tougher. It took the Red Demons 46-minutes to find the back of the net against Wichita North on Tuesday but once they did, the Redskins could not find an answer.

Dodge City beat Wichita North 3-0 to advance to the 6A state semifinals in Olathe for the first time since 2010.

Head coach Saul Hernandez never made it to the semifinals when he was a player for the Red Demons. In his first year coaching his alma mater, he gets to cross that goal off of his list.

“Honestly, (Hernandez) brought the team together even more than we already were,” senior midfielder Leo Lopez said. “Last year we had an amazing team, we just couldn’t finish. Finish, I think he got that in our heads. We just stuck to the plan. We did what he said and look where we got.”

13 minutes into the game, Wichita North missed a penalty kick that would have given them an early 1-0 lead. The Redskins were able to throw the Red Demons off of their rhythm for the first 40 minutes.

Sophomores Mario Martinez and Joshua Don Juan scored goals less than a minute apart in the first 10 minutes of the second half. From that point on, the Red Demons seized control.

“At halftime we emphasized just playing our game,” Hernandez said. “The first half I think we were nervous, a little more tense but the second half we calmed down.”

Senior Maans Spaangaeng scored the final goal of the evening in the 54th minute.

Tuesday’s 3-0 win gave Dodge City (18-1) their 13th shutout this season. Even when the shots were not hitting the back of the net, the Red Demons’ team defense has kept them in control of games this season.

“Coach (Hernandez) got that in our heads,” Lopez said. “When you lose the ball, everybody is a defender. I think that’s what helped us out this year. This game especially.”

The Dodge City boys soccer team’s final goal this season is to win a state championship. The journey to be crowned the top team in the state starts this Friday in Olathe.

“We’re going to go and represent the western side of the state and we’re going to bust our butts off and give everything we’ve got,” Lopez said.

By John Zetmeir
Dodge City Daily Globe

For the third time in school history and the first time since 2010, the Red Demons are going to state. They overcame a scoreless first half and a botched Wichita North penalty kick in the first half to win 3-0 in the 6A quarterfinals. Dodge City hasn’t allowed a goal in the playoffs.

“I think that we were nervous, a little bit tense, but second half we calmed down,” Dodge City head soccer coach Saul Hernandez said. “Second half we did what we usually do, and what we work on in practice and they couldn’t have done a better job.”

The Red Demons exploded out of half time with three quick goals by Mario Martinez, Joshua Don Juan and Maans Spaangaeng.

“We couldn’t get the quick goals like we wanted, we had our opportunities in the first half but we couldn’t get them in,” Dodge City senior Leonel Lopez said. “We stuck through it, we said let’s get this fire going and look what we did, we came out quick and scored the goals we needed.”

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