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From KansasCity.com

HarrisonvilleKnown primarily for the boys of fall, Harrisonville has maintained a proud tradition as a football powerhouse. The girls of spring, however, made it their mission to change that.

Last weekend, the Harrisonville Wildcats made their first appearance at the Missouri Class 2 girls’ soccer state championship tournament in Fenton, Mo.. Although the trailblazing moment ended with two losses and tears as the girls accepted their fourth-place trophy after losing 3-1 to Notre Dame of St. Louis, defiant Wildcat senior Karson Wilson would later reflect on the mission-accomplished moment.

“It feels amazing,” Wilson said. “We come from a very football-oriented town. Girls’ soccer has been a joke there for so long, and coming out here and actually proving ourselves this year felt amazing. To show everyone in the town that we could, and we were actually something to mess with.”

Harrisonville accomplished this without the full-time services of its best offensive player, injured junior Anna Holden, who was listed in only 10 games before the state tournament.

“I think we played for her. She came in and gave everything she had and we saw that. Then she got hurt. It was like, ‘let’s do it for her,’ because she can’t and we can,” Wilson said. “Why not do that for her? And I also think that everybody telling us, ‘No, you can’t do it,’ pushed us even farther out there on the field.”

Harrisonville finished the season with a 23-6 record, a season that was more than a decade in the making. The seven core seniors played together as tykes on the Harrisonville Heat club team. Through the years, they mainly stuck together and helped build soccer tradition.

“(We) seven seniors have played together since we were four years old,” Wilson said. “Since we were freshmen, all we said throughout our high school career was we wanted to make it to state. When people said we couldn’t, and we did. That’s my crowning moment, at least, in actually being here.”