By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
They didn’t match the dizzying heights of last season, but the Elkhorn Area High School boys soccer team enjoyed a tremendous 2012 campaign, which capped off a tremendous two years.
The Elks repeated this season as Southern Lakes Conference, finishing 16-4-3 overall and 8-0-1 in the SLC.
The Elks did not advance to the WIAA Division 1 state tournament for the second consecutive season. This year, the Elks lost to Kenosha Tremper 1-0 Oct. 18 at Kenosha in the first round of the WIAA Division 1 Kenosha Tremper sectional tournament.
“We could have won against Tremper,” coach BZ Kayser said. “A goal here, a goal there – that’s how close we were to getting back again (to state).”
Kayser is referring to the WIAA Division 1 State Soccer Tournament. The Elks advanced to the WIAA Division 1 state tournament in 2011 for the first time in school history and lost 3-0 to Neenah in the quarterfinals Oct. 27 at Milwaukee’s Uihlein Park.
Advancing to the state tournament is one of many significant achievements for the group of seniors to which Kayser and Elks bid farewell. According to this year’s roster, the seniors are Tom Rhode, Jon Stopple, Brandon Riese, Alex Hall, Peter Meylink, Dylan Seitz, Adam Skoczylas, Erik Papenfus and Jose Estrada.
In two years the group went 39-6-3, advanced to state and won consecutive Southern Lakes Conference and WIAA Division 1 Regional titles. In 2011 they won a Sectional title for the right to advance to state. The group of seniors also didn’t lose a SLC game in that same time frame.
“I think it’s pretty obvious this senior class will go down as the best senior (soccer) class to go through Elkhorn High School,” Kayser said. “It will be very hard to replace all those guys.”
Kayser coached his son, Jordan, last season, during Jordan’s senior year, and said it was harder to lose this year’s senior class than it was to lose his son.
“We were more than a team,” Kayser said. “We were family. I had a great relationship with the kids and their parents.”
Kayser said at the start of the season he thought the Elks would be lucky to return to the state tournament. But as the season went on, Kayser changed this thinking.
“I thought at the beginning of the year it would be a bonus,” Kayser said. “But as I watched scores and I see tape, I’m disappointed.”
Regardless, the Elks excellence on the field resulted in numerous post-season honors. Stopple earned Player of the Year Honors in the Southern Lakes Conference and also a spot on the SLC First Team, along with Papenfuss, Seitz and Riese.
“I’d have been terribly disappointed if he hadn’t have won it,” Kayser said of Stopple’s Player of the Year award. “I strongly felt we had the best player this year and the best player last year (in conference), no doubt about it.”
Jordan Kayser earned 2011 Player of the Year honors in the SLC.
In 2012 Duran earned Second Team All-SLC honors and Chandler Kayser, Zach Patryn and Skoczylas earned Honorable Mention recognition.
Stopple was also the Elks’ team Most Valuable Player. Riese earned the nod as the Offensive Player of the Year after leading the Elks in scoring with 17 goals and 10 assists.
Seitz is the Elks Defensive Player of the Year and Chandler Kayser earned Most Improved Player honors.
BZ Kayser said the signature win of the Elks season is a 1-0 victory Aug. 18 at home against Racine’s The Prairie School, the two-time defending WIAA Division 3 state champs.
“I think that was just a huge game for us, to beat the two-time defending state champs,” Kayser said. “We had a lot of tough, battled games. We were built for those types of game. That was a huge game for us.”
Heading into next season the challenges will increase as Kayser and the Elks work to replace nine seniors. But the goals remain the same – for starters, win the Southern Lakes Conference.
