Williamsburg boys’ soccer team ends season with substate run

A trip to the state tournament is the prize they were after and it took a big second-half rally by the No. 1 team to keep them from that prize.

Williamsburg gave top-ranked Gilbert a real tussle in last Wednesday’s Class 2A Substate 4 final at Gilbert, leading the Racoon Conference champion Tigers 1-0 at halftime, but the Raiders couldn’t produce the same results after intermission as Gilbert stormed back for a 3-1 victory.

“They’re a great team,” said Williamsburg coach Ryan Sauser of the Tigers, who improved their record to 18-2 and received the No. 1 seed in this week’s state tournament at the Crownie Park Soccer Complex in Des Moines. “We knew we would have to use our speed to create opportunities in the counter attack, and try to keep pressure around the midfield.”

The Raiders were able to capitalize early on a great shot by Braeden Brown to go up 1-0, but the Tigers silenced their offense the rest of the night and managed to get through three second-half goals against a Williamsburg defense that played well, but not well enough.

“We just didn’t finish it out,” he said. A six-game Raider winning streak came to an end with the loss, in addition to their 2023 season, which was highlighted by a WaMaC West Division championship and their best record, percentage wise, in school history at 13-4 and .765. The 2018 team had one more win but also a tie, finishing 14-4-1, .763.

“It was a fun year,” said coach Sauser, who in 13 seasons as Williamsburg’s head coach has a 97-90 record, but since 2015 is 82-48. “The guys did a great job and I enjoyed coaching them.”

The Raiders set multiple school team records, including the most goals scored (57) and fewest goals allowed (10). Brown, a senior, and sophomore Mason Eggleston both broke the school’s individual single-season scoring record with 23 and 25 goals, respectively, and junior Logan Rethwisch had one of the best seasons in goal with a save percentage of 91.3.

Including Brown, Williamsburg had five seniors on this year’s team. The other four were Thiago Araujo, Jarin Sherman, Saul Martinez and Daniel Dietze. Araujo, coach Sauser pointed out, joined the Raiders from Brazil and “fit right in.”