La Salle-Peru boys soccer coach David Spudic doesn’t have the Cavaliers’ record in penalty kick games, but he knows it hasn’t been good.

“It feels like every time we’ve gone to penalty kicks, we haven’t come out on top,” Spudic said. “It’s something we talked about at the beginning of the season that we’re not the guys on TV. You walk up, you take deep breaths, you visualize yourself scoring, you blur out the crowd and it’s just you and the back of the net. You don’t need to stutter step. You just choose your spot and you play the ball into it.”

The Cavs took a step in the right direction in curing their PK woes Monday as they outshot Rochelle in PKs to pull out a 3-2 Interstate 8 Conference victory in La Salle.

“It’s definitely nerve-wracking, especially with L-P’s history with penalty kicks,” L-P junior Ismael Mejia said. “We haven’t really won any. But we had confidence in each other and we took the win in the end.”

The Hubs kicked first in PKs and L-P goalkeeper Logan Grzywa made the save.

Mejia stepped to the ball first for L-P and booted it past Rochelle keeper Antonio Hueramo, who came on for PKs to replace injured keeper Danny Garcia.

“I tell myself I’m going to score, I pick out a spot before I even walk up there and I just take it and shoot it with confidence,” Mejia said.

L-P also got PK scores from Damian Cortes, Adrian Gonzalez and Alex Rax, which sealed the deal as the Hubs managed only two makes in their first four attempts with Grzywa making two stops.

“Just confidence and attempting to look where they were going to kick,” the junior Grzywa said about the key to stopping two PKs.

It was Grzywa’s first shootout at the varstiy level.

“It’s amazing,” Grzywa said about winning in his first shootout.

While L-P finished strong, the Hubs started that way as they scored nine minutes into the game when they played the ball into the box, Heilly Zepeda slid and tapped it toward the corner of the net and Yandel Mendez ran up nad blasted it in.

The Hubs maintained the 1-0 lead throughout the first half.

“Scoring that early goal always gives you the momentum,” Rochelle coach Brad Male said. “We had a lot of opportunities. They had a lot of opportunities. It’s unfortunate we came out on the losing end. I think these are two evenly matched teams.”

The Cavs tied it early in the second half when Mejia poked in a cross from Adan Pantoja with 36:32 left and L-P took the lead when Pantoja scored on an assist from Jaime Gonzalez with 14:32 left.

“We started off rocky,” Mejia said. “Our defense was kind of slow. Our midfield was kind of slow. The whole team started off a little slow, but coach gave a good speech and we came out in the second half stronger and better. We came out with more energy.”

Rochelle (6-9-1, 1-4) evened it up when Antonio Ruiz sent a rocket into the net from just outside the box.

“We kept the pressure on, kept moving the ball, moving to space and I think that helped us,” Male said.

With the PK win, the Cavs improved to 10-1 overall and 3-1 in the conference.

“We’re just playing as a team,” Spudic said. “Everyone’s on the same page that as a team we can accomplish a lot of great things together. They’re all on the same page of not trying to do it by themselves.”

The Cavs are closing in on the program record for wins in a season of 12 set in 2022. L-P has nine regular season games left to set a new mark.

“It means a lot,” Mejia said. “Getting to that point is just an honor. I feel very grateful for my team that we’re super confident and strong.”