Girls soccer: Mendota’s season ends in regional semifinal

OREGON – For most of the first half Saturday, the No. 5-seeded Mendota girls soccer team battled right with No. 3 Aurora Central Catholic in a Class 1A Oregon Regional semifinal.

The Chargers got on the board with 13:08 left in the first half and it started to slip away from the Trojans when Aurora Central Catholic scored again with 1:48 left before halftime for a two-goal lead.

Mendota scored in the second half, but the Chargers immediately responded and the Trojans’ season came to an end with a 5-1 loss.

“I thought we came out OK,” Mendota coach Nick Myers said. “We came out with some energy. I think after we gave up the second goal, we started to lose any momentum we did have. We started to lose a little bit of our spirit. But overall, we did OK. The effort could have been better.”

Not only were the Trojans facing a 2-0 deficit at halftime, but they lost two players during intermission as the team’s two seniors, Kimberly Cedillo and Linnea Escatel, left to attend Mendota’s graduation ceremony.

“It was unfortunate we had a couple girls missing then we had a couple seniors who had to leave because of graduation,” Myers said. “It was a tough situation, but no excuses. I mean, we still should have come to play.”

Aurora Central Catholic went up 3-0 on a rebound with 18:46 left in the game, but the Trojans quickly cut the deficit back down to two when junior Crystal Garcia fired in a shot from the left side of the net.

“I thought we did a great job. Even though we got down 3-0, we didn’t give up,” Myers said. “They still kept fighting. It’s not in Crystal’s DNA to give up. She kept fighting the whole game. It was well deserved for her to finally get one.”

However, the momentum didn’t last for Mendota as the Chargers immediately scored again to cap a stretch of three goals between the teams in 29 seconds.

“I thought after we got that one there’s a chance for us to get back in it with 18 minutes left, but when you give up another one seconds later, the momentum we had, we lost it,” Myers said.

The Chargers made it tough throughout the game for the Trojans to mount much of an offensive attack, limiting Mendota to four shots on goal.

“They played very well defensively,” Myers said. “No. 9 (Amanda Bush) in the back was very good. She was a fantastic challenge for Crystal. She’s a smart player. They played a little bit more deep and we’re a team that, because we have a lot of girls who haven’t played a lot before, we’re not really an attacking team in that our midfield doesn’t really push up as much as I would like. So it made it really hard for us today when we’re only attacking with a few numbers to get past five or six girls.”

The Trojans finish the season with a 12-7-1 record for their most wins since 2012.

“I thought we had a fantastic season,” Myers said. “We had the most wins we’ve had since 2012. A couple of our losses easily could have been wins.We’re a young team. We only had two seniors. I think there are a lot of good things to build off, but I was very happy overall with the season. We’ve improved the last two years. We went from one win to nine to 12. Hopefully next year we can get higher than 12 and maybe pick up another regional title.”

Myers said the Trojans will miss their two seniors.

“Linnea was a four year player who was here every day and always gave her best effort, so hopefully the underclassmen can see that and carry that on,” Myers said. “Kim came out as a junior and she was a starter from day one. She was a solid player for us. When we don’t have them, we lack experience on the field, so it’ll be tough losing those two.”