Class 1A IVC Boys Soccer Sectional: Mendota advances to final; Somonauk’s season ends

CHILLICOTHE – With each step in the postseason the opponents get tougher and the pressure to advance a little higher.

During Tuesday’s Class 1A Illinois Valley Central Sectional semifinals, the pressure was a huge in both matches and ultimately led to Mendota blanking Peoria Christian in the evening’s opening match and Quincy Notre Dame ending Somonauk’s season in the the second match.

Mendota and Quincy Notre Dame are scheduled to play at 3 p.m. Saturday for the sectional championship, but MHS coach Nick Myers said the match may be moved up to a noon start because of the more than 3-hour trip for the Raiders. The Trojans, who fell to the Raiders in a sectional semifinal in 2019, will be looking to capture their first sectional title.

Mendota 3, Peoria Christian 0: The Trojans were the aggressors from the start against the Chargers, grabbing the lead for good just six minutes in when Yahir Diaz’s tough-angle shot from the right wing was stopped, but fell at the feet of a crashing Ricky Orozco, who netted his 14th goal of the season.

Mendota dominated ball possession and field position for the entirety of the opening 40 minutes and allowed Peoria Christian to push the ball back across the midfield stripe only a handful of times.

Mendota made it 2-0 10 minutes before halftime when an Orozco cross found Jasiel Watson in the center of the box and Watson made a left-footed shot from 15 yards out for his 16th goal of the season. The Trojans out-shot the Chargers, 25-0, in the first half, including 12-0 in shots on target.

“The first half tonight was exactly how we talked about how we needed to play the last two days,” said Myers, his team 22-0 on the season with 16 wins via shutout. “We did a great job of possessing the ball and moving it around. We played solid in the defensive end, and on offense we were creating chances. The first half couldn’t have went any better for us.

“We’ve talked about how important applying pressure is since the summer. It all starts with our forwards and midfielders pressure and their ability to keep the ball in our end. They did a great job today, and our defense stepped up when needed a couple times.”

Mendota, which added 15 more shots in the second half to two for Peoria Christian (12-9-2), scored for the final time with 4:22 left when Johnathan Cortez followed his initial blocked shot with a missile into the lower right corner of the net.

“In the second half, while I don’t think we became lazy, we just relaxed a bit,” Myers said. “Yes, we were up two, but we needed to still be aggressive. We are now where we wanted to be, so we’ll see what we can do Saturday.”

Quincy Notre Dame 4, Somonauk 0: The Raiders, who finished third in the 2019 state finals and were champions the year before, netted a goal by Leo Cann just 3:24 into the match to grab the early momentum against the Bobcats.

“We knew they were a super, super good team, so the game plan was that we are going to sit in [defensively] and try to hold them while also trying to get a goal on the counter attack,” said Somonauk coach Jonathan Liechty, his team finishing the season 20-3. “It hurt that we gave one up so quickly because it kind of blew that plan up a little bit. But I loved the fact that my guys weren’t at all in awe, but also think tonight was a perfect blue print of what it takes to be a very quality opponent.”

Somonauk’s best scoring chance of the match was with 26:07 on the clock when Carter Andrew’s header off a throw in had to be stopped with a dive from QND goalkeeper Ethan Sparrow.

From there, Quincy Notre Dame (16-5-3) got goals from Jake Hoyt (25th minute) and Tanner Anderson (34th minute) to lead 3-0 at the break.

The Raiders, who netted the match’s final score early in the second half, finished out-shooting the locals 37-5 overall and 25-5 on net with Bobcats’ keeper Colten Eade recording 21 saves.

“I’m so pleased with how hard the guys played, and I think it’s a complement to their character that we only allowed one goal after halftime. Quincy Notre Dame didn’t call off the dogs until there was like eight minutes left,” Liechty said. “We just haven’t played that caliber of team before, but I thought we adjusted in the second half and played a little more even. We had some chances throughout the game, but we just weren’t able to convert. They are a super-talented team and they had their share of chances, but I felt we did all we could to try and keep them in check.”