Boys soccer: Mendota strikes early in blowout win over Streator

MENDOTA – After playing to a scoreless draw with Streator in the Streator Tournament on Aug. 31, the Mendota boys soccer team wanted to jump on the Bulldogs early in Monday’s rematch.

The Trojans made that happen as Sebastian Carlos took a pass from Ramiro Palacios and scored just 35 seconds into the match.

Mendota kept the pressure up all game en route to a 9-0 nonconference victory.

“We just wanted to put them away really fast,” Mendota senior David Casas said. “I think we played great. We started off very well. Even in warmups, we did well and we proceeded to do well in the game.”

Mendota coach Nick Myers was pleased to see his team start strong after falling behind early in each of the Trojans’ past two games.

“I thought we responded well,” Myers said. “We’ve started slow the last few games. We allowed Geneseo to get ahead of us 1-0. We ended up winning the game [6-1], but they were able to get ahead of us. Somonauk got ahead of us 1-0 [before Mendota won 8-1], so we’ve been coming out slow. We talked about that before the game, so I was happy to see us respond with a goal in the first 35 seconds.”

The Trojans had a few close misses before adding to their lead with 25:32 left in the first half when Cesar Casas fired a shot into the upper right corner of the goal on an assist by Mauricio Martinez.

Mendota added two more goals in the next 7:19 as Martinez dribbled through the defense and found the back of the net. Isaac Diaz scored on an assist from Johan Cortez.

The Trojans extended the lead to 6-0 by halftime as Cortez raced by the defense, jumped over a sliding keeper, regained his balance and put the ball in the net with 13:14 left in the half before Mendota scored again, this time on a free kick by Martinez.

In the second half, Mauricio Salinas scored on an assist from Sam Matura, Cortez scored with 11:25 left, and Matura scored on an assist from Aaden Castle to end the game with 5:25 remaining.

“We stayed composed and stayed together in the middle,” David Casas said. “We just let them go to the outside and once they went to the inside with the ball, we took it away.”

Streator coach JT Huey said a slow start and different conditions led to the lopsided result after the draw early in the season.

“We came out slow, and when they banged in two early in the first 10 minutes, it shut down the midfield and defense,” Huey said. “We played a quality game against them in the tournament. We had different conditions. A tighter field, shorter field and natural grass field [during the tournament]. They were able to utilize the width and speed [of the turf field] and get through runs on us early.”

Mendota (12-1-1) has won six games in a row by a combined score of 28-3 since losing 5-0 to Yorkville on Sept. 9 for the Trojans only loss of the season.

“We’ve been playing really well,” Myers said. “The boys are communicating. I think they’re getting more confident by the game. We’ve been putting a big stress on getting ready for postseason. We have aspirations of going pretty far. We’ve been talking about putting teams away in the regular season when we can. I thought we did a nice job of that. I was pretty happy with the first-half result up by six. I thought we were moving the ball well and sharing it. Every time we have these big scoring games, we have multiple guys score, so that’s nice. I thought we did a really nice job defensively. We talked in the midfield. It was a good performance.”

Myers said the loss to Yorkville was a wakeup call.

“We ran into a bigger school that could move the ball on us and outpossess us,” Myers said. ‘I think that was a big eye-opener. I think it motivated these guys a little bit like, ‘Hey, we can get better and we need to get better.’ We have some tough ones coming up in a couple weeks. We play Ottawa, Moline and Peoria Christian in the same week, so that’s going to be a big test for us right before the postseason.”

Huey said the Bulldogs (7-9-2) hope to use the loss as a learning experience.

“We know Mendota is a high caliber, quality sectional-level team, if not farther, so all this does is help our guys going into regionals,” Huey said. “The next seven games is the big difference maker setting the tone for the regional. It started here, and we’ll build, learn from it and hopefully be better for it.”