Boys soccer: Mendota’s season ends with 1A sectional final loss to Quincy Notre Dame

MENDOTA – The Mendota boys soccer team put together a solid opening 10 minutes in Saturday afternoon’s Class 1A sectional championship against Quincy Notre Dame.

However, the Raiders, after playing those opening moments of the match in their defensive end, used a quick counter to score the opening goal, then added another six minutes later to hold the momentum.

The Trojans cut the lead to one just over midway through the first, but Notre Dame (16-6-2) responded with two goals in the final 12 minutes before finding the back of the net three times in the first five minutes of the second half to roll to a 7-1 triumph.

“We came out today exactly how we talked about wanting to and were controlling the action in those first 10 minutes,” Mendota coach Nick Myers said. “We knew what we needed to do against them, which was to pressure them because of how talented they are. You can’t sit back against teams like Quincy Notre Dame. If you do, they are going to pick you apart.

“Then, all of a sudden, they score that first goal ... it was definitely deflating. We bounced back to cut it to 2-1, and I thought that might bring some life to us, but [QND] took the air out the balloon again by scoring quickly right away. Then I’m not sure we could have come out any worse to start the second half.

“We were just playing catch-up all game and that’s normally not going to work out well most of the time, but especially not in a sectional championship game.”

Mendota, which finishes the season 19-7, had defeated QND 3-2 in last season’s sectional championship in Chillicothe.

Raiders senior all-stater and program all-time leading goal-scorer Tanner Anderson scored four times and passed for an assist, while junior Leo Cann netted three goals.

“I thought coming into today one key for us [to be successful] was going to be being able to control No. 10 [Jasiel Watson] and No. 15 [Johnathan Cortez] up top because they are both very good players that work well together,” QND coach Greg Reis said. “We also wanted to limit fouls in our end of the field because No. 3 [Rafael Romero] is a very dangerous player if given free kicks from 40 yards in.

“We did a great job in both of those areas, while also converting opportunities, whether we created them or they gave them to us.”

Mendota cut the early two-goal disadvantage in half in the 23rd minute when freshman Johan Cortez fired a 25-yard hooking shot past the diving QND keeper and into the top left corner of the net.

“I felt we were in a good spot up 2-0 early, and then their young man put in a great shot inside the far post,” Reis said. “However, we did an excellent job of responding to that with a couple [more goals] to go to halftime up three, and then came out strong in the second half with three more in the first few minutes.”

Cann scored on a short shot in the 28th minute, and Anderson in the 30th minute to push the Raiders lead to 4-1 at halftime. Anderson then scored twice in the first three minutes of the second half, while Cann added his third goal in the 45th minute.

For the match, QND held the advantage in overall shots 17-11 and on target chances 15-7.

Mendota junior keeper Martin Murillo made eight saves.

“As soon as last season ended, I talked to our athletic director Steve Hanson about beefing up our schedule for this season and moving forward. We did that,” Myers said. “We’ve been a successful team the last couple of years [with three straight regional titles], but we wanted to make ourselves even better, and that starts with playing tougher teams during the regular season. Today it didn’t show, but I feel playing the really good teams we played this year was important for the years to come.

“We lose nine seniors – many of them four-year starters – but we had a very good freshman group this year and a really good eighth-grade class coming in next year. I’m excited to see what we can do in the next few years.”