Neil Mayer knew he needed to get Aurora Central Catholic off to a quick start.

It was one of the few Achilles’ heels the No. 4 Chargers had throughout the season. And after a long week off from competition, it was something they were a little fearful of heading into a Class 2A regional semifinal Tuesday against No. 6 Dixon.

It didn’t take long to suppress those fears.

Mayer put up a goal and an assist after just 12 minutes of play, and the Chargers rode that momentum to take a 3-0 victory over the Dukes.

“We’ve had that problem a lot this season, where we had a poor start to our games,” Mayer said. “But getting those goals early definitely put us ahead and had us in the right place mentally.”

With the win, the Chargers will face host and top-seeded Marmion in the regional finals. The Cadets took down No. 8 Plano in Tuesday’s first regional semifinal.

Mayer got the scoring going early for the Chargers (11-6-1), finding junior Chris Incandala on a pass that he buried into the far post to give them a 1-0 lead in the fifth minute of play.

Seven minutes later, it was the senior who got in on the scoring. After getting on the end of an attempted clearance of a corner kick, Mayer booted a grounder from 20 yards out through a cluster of players and into the bottom corner of the net to make it 2-0 after just 11:59 went off the clock.

“I didn’t really put too much on it, and it went right into the corner,” he said. “I thought it was going to be deflected or something, but I got kind of lucky to get it in.”

After those two goals, the game slowed down quite a bit, with a goal in the 54th minute from junior Leroy Arias the only scoring that the Chargers could get for the rest of the contest.

“We just weren’t able to capitalize more and break down the team,” Chargers coach Nazareth Jean Marie said. “Hopefully we can work on that in practice and be able to mentor it in the next game, especially since it’ll be crucial if we want to beat Marmion.”

It was an attack that Dixon (10-9) could not recover from, even with the wind in their favor for the entire attack. The Dukes finished the night with four shots on goal, with three of them coming in the second half.

“We just tried to limit the damage with the wind coming at us, and then the second half we tried to press as much as we could,” Dukes coach Josh Brigl said. “Being down, we had to play a little more direct than we wanted to, but we still created some opportunities. We knew we were going to play our best, and they just played really well.”

Brigl said he was still very proud of how his defense played on the night, especially senior goalkeeper Gage Helfrick, who managed to make 10 saves on the night.

“It’s his first year playing soccer in like nine years, and he had a heck of a night,” Brigl said. “He’s come a long way this year, and the back line has too. I think everyone did really well on the back, they’re just a very potent attacking team, so to be able to mitigate the damage like we did was somewhat of a success.”

In the first game of the night, the top-seeded Cadets went on a scoring spree, riding six first-half goals to get an 8-0 victory over the No. 8 Reapers.

Junior Jamin Berman got the scoring going early for the Cadets in both halves, getting goals within the first three minutes of each half, which included a goal just 2:17 into the second half to make it 7-0, cutting the remaining time left in half.

“We’ve talked a lot about taking our chances and creating opportunities early,” Cadets coach Anne Iwinski said. “Jamin has become more and more dangerous over the past few weeks, and it’s been fun to see him progress throughout the season.”

Senior Jordan Peinado also finished the game with two scores. He also had a pair of assists to lead the offensive outburst.

“He is a true leader and competitor,” Iwinski said. “He’s someone that never wants to lose, and he makes a huge difference on the field, not only in the way he plays, but in his leadership as well.”

Junior Eduardo Zepeda, senior Andres Alvares, senior Luke Swindle and freshman Ben Bierman also found the back of the net, all in the first half.

“I feel like we had a mindset of just going in and attacking the game, not laying back on any of the balls,” Peinado said. “I know at first I wasn’t used to this type of weather. But once we found our rhythm, I knew we had it under control.”

The Reapers (9-13-1) did not record a shot on goal in the contest. They were also without senior Cristian Sanchez and sophomore goalkeeper Liam Soyk, who were both crucial in Plano’s regional quarterfinal victory over Morris.