Seahawks roll past Atchison

Chung's hat trick, Bireta's shutout power Seabury

Outhustling Atchison led to outscoring Atchison for the Seabury Academy boys soccer team in a 4-0 victory Tuesday at the Youth Sports Inc. fields.

“We outplayed them in every facet of the game,” said Seabury junior goaltender Paul Bireta, who scrambled, jumped and slid to post the shutout.

The Seahawks (4-3) used quick centering passes to run straight down the heart of the Atchison defense from the game’s first minute.

That aggressiveness paid off in the third minute when a long kick by sophomore Max Cannon deflected off an Atchison defender and into the net.

The second Seahawk goal came as sophomore forward Min Kyu Lee blazed down the left sideline and fed the ball to center. Seabury freshman Peter Zemanski was in the area, but sophomore Aaron Chung booted in his first goal of the day in the 35th minute.

“The thing we’ve been working on is just less dribbling and more passing and attacking,” Seabury coach Brian Clyne said. “We have the talent. We were just learning to work with each other.”

Chung continued to surge in the second half, posting two more goals for the first hat trick in Seabury history.

The sophomore forward outhustled the Redmen (1-4) to the ball in the 52nd minute and shot in a rebound after the ball bounced of the Atchison goaltender. Chung’s third goal came in the 75th minute off a penalty kick after he was tripped while driving to the net.

“I missed many chances in other games, so I’m happy to get three,” Chung said.

It wasn’t just the Seabury show. The Redmen had chances to score, but most sailed over the top of the Seabury goal.

What made the Class 1A school’s shutout of a 4A program all the more intriguing was the fact that Seabury’s top scorer, Gary Gardner, was sick and watched from the sideline.

“(The Redmen) weren’t getting wide-open shots, so they weren’t on goal,” said Bireta, crediting his team’s defense for the shot variance.

Seabury travels Friday to Olathe Christian.