Boys soccer: Top-seeded Mendota cruises past Serena in regional opener

MENDOTA – A hot start to both halves led the No. 1-seeded Mendota boys soccer team to an easy 6-1 victory over No. 6 Serena in a Class 1A Mendota Regional semifinal on a brisk rainy Saturday morning.

The Trojans controlled the tempo from the start with Mendota keeping the Huskers away from their offensive side of the field.

With 34:35 left in the first half beautiful passing from Sebastian Carlos to Cesar Casas over to Johan Cortez led to the Trojans’ first goal of the game.

Mendota kept the pressure on the Huskers and 5 1/2 minutes later, Isaac Diaz sent a backwards pass to Casas, who found the back of the net for a 2-0 lead.

With just over 24 minutes left in the half, Serena’s Richie Armour had a great shot on goal, but an even better save by Mendota keeper Mateo Goy kept the Huskers scoreless.

Four minutes later though, Tanner Faivre had a corner kick that found Carson Baker for the header into the back of the net to cut the Trojans’ lead in half at 2-1.

Over the final 20 minutes, both offenses relaxed a bit as the defenses stepped up. Mendota had a couple of scoring opportunities, but the Huskers were able to keep the game at 2-1 heading into the break.

“I was proud of the way we responded after Mendota’s hot start,” Serena coach Jeremy Foreman said. “Mendota is young, but has a very talented team and could have a nice postseason run in them. We got a couple of different corner kick’s that we run and we were able to score on one of those to keep it close in the first half.”

The second half was all Trojans though as Ramiro Palacios got into the middle of the Huskers defense and made it 3-1 Mendota.

Four minutes later, after relentless pressure from the Trojans, Casas once again scored, this time on a pass from Carlos that pushed the Trojans lead to 4-1.

“We traditionally start slow, but we talked all week about starting out fast,” Mendota coach Nick Myers said. “We did that in the first half, but then I thought we relaxed a bit. Then we had a lengthy talk at halftime and made some adjustments and had the wind at our backs and we came out firing. I don’t think we even allowed them past midfield but once or twice.”

Mendota kept the pressure up and three minutes later at 31:44, Casas blasted in a shot from the corner for a hat trick and a 5-1 lead.

Just 90 seconds later, Diaz scored on a penalty kick to push the lead to 6-1.

Although no more scoring happened, Mendota was on its offensive side of the field almost the entire second half as the Trojans cruised to the 6-1 victory.

“I think Cesar might have had some nerves early on, but I took him out briefly and he responded,” Myers said. “He’s just a freshman, but he’s a talented player and ended up with the hat trick today.”

Mendota (20-2-2) will play No. 4 Kewanee in the regional championship at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The Boilermakers advanced with a 3-0 win over No. 5 Roanoke-Benson in Saturday’s second semifinal.

The Trojans beat Kewanee 5-0 on Sept. 6.