For the Mendota boys soccer team, a trip to the state tournament isn’t new.

The Trojans placed third in Class 1A last season and returned seven starters and several other players who saw significant action during that run.

Mendota (24-4) returns to the state tournament this year and will face a Coal City (23-3) team that is experiencing a postseason run for the first time when the teams meet at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Hoffman Estates.

The Coalers had never won a regional championship before this season. They have a 12-player senior group that has built the program, helping Coal City go from three wins in 2022 to five wins in 2023 to 17 wins last year to a state berth this fall.

“Obviously, they’re a good team,” Mendota coach Nick Myers said. “They’re very senior-heavy. They’re working with a group that’s gotten better every year. Their freshman and sophomore years, they had losing records, and then last year really started to turn the corner, and this year have had a fantastic season. They’re clearly playing with a ton of confidence.

“Obviously, we might have the leg up on them a little bit since we were at the state tournament last year and we know what to expect. We have to use our experience. We’ve been in the biggest games. We’ll know what to expect when we show up Thursday night and not get caught up in the moment.”

Coal City is a strong defensive team that has allowed only 10 goals all season and has recorded 15 shutouts. Junior goalkeeper Carter Nicholson has made 174 saves.

The Trojans counter with a high-scoring offense that has put up 145 goals in 28 games with three top-notch scorers in Johan Cortez (38 goals), Cesar Casas (36 goals) and Isaac Diaz (35 goals), while Mauricio Salinas has scored in the past three postseason matches.

“They play really well together,” Myers said about the Coaler defense. “They play very compact, so they don’t let you beat them down the middle. I do think we can attack them up the wings and get to the outside and get their fullbacks and center backs to have to vacate the middle a little bit. That’s kind of how we attack Quincy [Notre Dame in the supersectional].

“From watching them, it’ll be interesting to see how they handle our quickness up front. I don’t know if they’ve played a team yet with the amount of speed we have, especially on the attack. I think we can attack them from a speed standpoint and make them have to see what they can do with us in a foot race.”

Offensively, sophomore Carter Hollis has scored 23 goals and has nine assists, while senior Julian Micetich has 19 goals and 10 assists for the Coalers, who have scored 102 goals.

The Mendota defense has surrendered 19 goals and has 17 shutouts. Senior goalkeeper Mateo Goy has made 81 saves.

“It looks like they’re led by [Micetich],” Myers said. “He’s a big, strong, physical kid [at 6-foot-2] and if you give him the opportunity to, he’ll try to bulldoze his way through your back line. We’re going to have to make sure we don’t give him time on the ball.

“They’re very quick to shoot. That can be dangerous for a defense. They don’t mess around with it too much. If they get an opening or a look outside the box, they let it fire. We will definitely have to pressure them and not give them time and space. Otherwise, it could be a long night for us. They attack with a lot of numbers, which can sometimes be intimidating for a defense, so we have to make sure our midfield drops a little bit when we don’t have the ball.”

Myers said while the Trojans rely more on speed, the Coalers are a physical team.

“They’re definitely a physical team and they have some bigger kids, so their physicality could potentially cause us a little bit of a problem,” Myers said. “But I think if we’re able to move the ball quickly and utilize our speed, we might be able to counteract their physicality in that perspective.”

The other 1A semifinal pits Columbia (22-5-3) against Chicago Academy (18-3-3).

Mendota beat Columbia in the third-place game last year. The Eagles are at state for the third year in a row and will bring home their fifth trophy since 2010, including the 2014 state title. Chicago Academy had never won a sectional title before this season.