Lopez named POY, Hernandez COY in WAC Boys Soccer

It seemed like every time you saw a breakdown of a Dodge City boys soccer game this past fall, you would see a handful of names consistently as part of the summary - Alan Lopez, Diego Olivares and Erik Martinez.

So it is no surprise that all three led the Red Demons to a third-place finish at the Class 6A State Tournament, and that all three made the All-Western Athletic Conference Boys Soccer First Team selections, which were released Tuesday.

The trio were among six Red Demons who received honors, while Lopez garnered addition recognition, earning WAC Player of the Year honors. Dodge City Head Coach Saul Hernandez, who earned his 90th career win at Dodge City in their final match of the season, a 4-0 blanking of Wichita-East in the Third-Place Match. Oliveras is a senior, while Lopez and Martinez are juniors.

Lopez paced Dodge City (17-4) with 23 goals and 9 assists on the season, including a goal in the Third-Place Match.

Liberal also landed three players on the First Team, including seniors Victor Limon and Levi Flores and junior AJ Ramirez. Garden City had a pair of juniors who were First-Team picks in Moses Lares and Jairo Carillo. The rest of the First Team had three seniors - Great Bend's Israel Franco Jr. and Jesus Sanchez and Hays’ Mathew Goddale.

Second-Team honors went to Daniel Rojas, Mervedi Nkongolo and Erubiel Duron of Dodge City; Darius Archuleta and Kevin Guerrero of Liberal; Fransicso Garcia and Simon Hernandez of Great Bend; Diego Muller and Blake Stieben of Hays; and Garden City freshman Leo Hernandez and David Hernandez. Both Great Bend players and Nkongolo are seniors, the rest except the C picks are juniors.