A historical season by No. 2-seeded La Salle-Peru came to an end Saturday in the Class 2A Ottawa Regional championship as No. 3 Kankakee dominated the Cavaliers 6-0 to claim the crown and head to the Galesburg Sectional next week.

“It’s not the ending we all wanted,” L-P coach David Spudic said. “We won the War on 34 (tournament) but fell short of conference and regional goals, but we set the program record for wins (15) with all but two kids coming back next season.”

L-P (15-6) was aggressive to start the game and just two minutes in, Ismael Mejia got a free kick that hit the side of the post and bounced away, keeping the game scoreless.

Both defenses dominated for the first 10 minutes of the game with neither side getting many shots on goal.

With about 26 minutes left in the first half, the Kays started to get some looks at the net.

Dylan Tapia Ayala had an open look but sailed the shot high, and 30 seconds later, Joseph Andrade had a good look, but a great save by L-P’s Logan Grzywa kept the score 0-0.

With 13:45 remaining in the half, Kankakee had a free kick that bounced off an L-P defender, but once again Grzywa was able to make the stop.

But with 8:51 left the Kays (19-6) were able to crack the scoring column as Tapia Ayala snuck the ball past Grzywa, who came up to make the play but was unable to, for a 1-0 lead.

“I think once we started getting comfortable and seeing what L-P was doing we started to attack,” Tapia Ayala said. “We usually play on a wider field, but once we got a feel for everything we just were able to get passes going and attack and then play great defense.”

The Kays defense was not even allowing the Cavs anywhere near the net.

With just 28 seconds remaining in the first half, Angel Cruz blasted a shot from 30 yards out to put Kankakee ahead 2-0 at halftime.

Just over a minute into the second half, Adan Pantoja centered the ball and passed to Adrian Gonzalez, who nearly cut the deficit in half for the Cavs, but the shot was stopped by Nathan Sanchez.

Play began to get physical as emotions grew and with 31:15 left in the game, Alexis Cruz was again denied by Grzywa.

“Logan has just been amazing all year,” Spudic said. “He made them work for everything they got today and kept us in it for a while.”

Damian Cortes got back on defense for the Cavs and made a solid play to kick the ball away, but on the other side of the field, the Kays were still dominating and keeping L-P far away from the net.

But with 25:12 left, a corner kick from Angel Cruz led to the header from Tapia Ayala for a 3-0 Kankakee lead.

Just 90 seconds later, the Cavs defense was sitting back and Alexis Cruz took advantage as he slapped a shot into the net for a 4-0 advantage.

That’s where the score remained for the next 10 minutes until Alexis Cruz faked out the Cavs defense and picked up another goal for a commanding 5-0 lead.

Three minutes later, Angel Cruz put the Kays ahead 6-0 with another goal.

“It took us a while to get our rhythm,” Kays coach Vincent Mkhwanazi said. “But once we did, we got going. L-P has some great players and our defense was just outstanding and able to get the job done as well.”

With 10:37 left, Jaime Gonzalez got maybe L-P’s best look since early in the game, but Sanchez made the stop and the Kays went on for the 6-0 victory.

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Kankakee's Dylan Tapia Ayala reacts after scoring a goal against L-P while celebrating with teammate Kevin Gutierrez during the Class 2A Regional title game on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025 at Ottawa High School. (Scott Anderson)