The Manhattan High boys soccer team made history and won the Wichita Titan Classic tournament for the first time this weekend, ending in a thriller. Collectively, the team went 3-0, and outscored opponents 17-0 on the week. They defeated Wichita West 10-0, then went on to defeat Emporia 6-0. They ended the tournament by facing Derby, and it was a hard-fought win.

Senior Nimrod Eshar scored a golden goal with one second left in overtime, assisted by Junior Mitch Hutchison. It was the only goal scored the entire match, winning the game in dramatic fashion.

“It was a big rush of emotions, realizing that we had just won the game and tournament for the first time,” Eshar said.

The boys have the best starting record in school history at 3-0-1 after the tournament, and hope to build on it.

“The Titan tournament can give a good indication on how the team will perform this season, and we wanted to get off to a good start,” Eshar said. “Having the best starting record in this program’s history will definitely provide a lot of confidence for the coming games that I’m sure we can use to our advantage.”

Junior Max Landsdowne thought it was no matter of luck that the team was ready to take the tournament.

“We had a week of really great practices after the Lawrence game to prepare for the tournament. We went in and had a really easy game to start it, and it gave us a big confidence boost going into the rest of of the tournament,” Landsdowne said.

A strong start was certainly part of the boy’s ride to the top.

“A lot of guys stepped up and did their part,” senior Jackson Boyle said. “We were nervous our first game, but some of that nervousness has started to go away as we’ve played more games.”

It’s been a team effort to start winning early on, and the boys want to keep playing that way.

“One of our major strengths is our depth and that we play as a team,” Boyle said. “We just need to make sure that we take the rest of our season one game at a time and focus on the present.”

The momentum from the tournament is something that the team wants to be a catalyst for their success going into the bulk of their schedule.

“I think the momentum will definitely continue through the rest of the season,” Landsdowne said. “We will need to keep pushing ourselves, because we have a lot of easy games coming up in the centennial league, and we can’t get complacent with where we are.”

Their next game is against Shawnee Heights in Topeka on Tuesday.