After winning just once and scoring four goals in 16 games during the regular season, the Free State High girls soccer team exploded for a 12-0 victory over Wichita West in the opening round of the Class 6A playoffs on Monday at FSHS.

Later in the day, the LHS girls picked up their first win of the season, 3-0 over JC Harmon on the road.

Both teams will now play at 6 p.m. Tuesday in separate regional semifinals — Free State (2-14-1) at top-seeded Washburn Rural (13-2-1) and LHS at No. 3 seed Blue Valley West (11-3-1).

The 19th-seeded Lions (1-16) got two goals from Giova Rubenstein and another from Olivia Platt to push past five-win Harmon and into the next round.

Sixteenth-seeded Free State’s offensive outburst, which came in just 40 minutes of playing time because of the 10-goal mercy rule, pushed the Firebirds’ scoring average from 0.25 goals per game to 0.94 per game.

“What I think we saw today was a team that plays in the Sunflower League that literally battles every game,” FSHS coach Joe Waldron said after the win. “We’re better than our record shows, and I’m so happy for these girls to get a win like this.”

Eight different Firebirds scored goals on Monday and five Free State players tallied assists. The Firebirds recorded 21 shots on goal and forced seven corner kicks in the attacking zone. Sophomore Hannah Hartzler leading the way with three goals. Senior captain Madison Beeley and junior Madison Powell also scored two apiece, with Powell adding an assist.

Senior Willoughby Lam, sophomore Kate Foust and freshmen Neylana Haque, Merrit Hale and Taylor Woods also added a goal apiece.

“We got an early lead and I was able to rest everybody as much as possible,” Waldron said.

That benefited Free State in a couple of ways. First, it allowed the starters, who will have to be sharp and fresh against Washburn Rural, to take it easy. Second, it allowed some underclassmen a chance to play extended minutes.

That part was particularly fun for Free State’s three captains, — Beeley, Lam and Wilson — who all said they could tell the younger girls were really excited about Monday’s result.

“Scoring’s addictive,” Wilson said. “And once they got one you could tell they wanted to keep going.”

Added Beeley: “I think it was a really good morale booster, getting the energy going for (Tuesday) and the rest of the week hopefully.”

Monday’s offensive effort was so balanced that, senior captain Aspen Wilson, the Firebirds’ leading goal scorer in the regular season, did not record a goal or an assist in the victory.

“I think it was a really, really great last home game for us,” Lam said after Monday’s win. “I feel like we’ve been waiting the whole season to have a fun, breakthrough game so it felt really great to be able to pull that one out today.”

Added Wilson: “It was a nice change from how our season’s gone.”

The win moves the Firebirds into Tuesday’s West Regional semifinals at Washburn Rural. The Firebirds’ have had plenty of seasons end with a loss to the Junior Blues, and they’re planning to show up on Tuesday ready to compete hard from start to finish.

“I think our mindset has got to be all-in or nothing,” Wilson said. “We have nothing to lose, so why not show up and give it everything we have.”

Waldron liked the sound of that approach and he said his team was well aware of how difficult Tuesday’s challenge would be.

“There is no secret formula to beating them,” he said. “They’re one of the best programs in the state and this year I think they’re better than they usually are. It’s going to be a tremendous challenge, but we’ll go play hard, do the best we can and see what happens.”