Mendota blanks Princeton to win sixth consecutive regional title

SERENA – Mendota senior David Casas jogged over to get the plaque from a Serena official and brought it back to his teammates.

The Trojans then walked halfway onto the field and held up the plaque to show their fans.

It was a subdued celebration.

Mendota has been there plenty of times before.

The No. 1-seeded Trojans beat No. 6 Princeton 6-0 on Tuesday to win the Class 1A Serena Regional for their sixth consecutive regional championship and seventh in the last eight seasons.

“Our goal coming into this year was to get back to sectionals and our big focus was on a sectional championship, but it’s still very important to win these regionals,” Mendota coach Nick Myers said. “I told our guys it’s a big deal for certain people on the team because it’s their first year on varsity or first year playing meaningful minutes and winning a regional.

“We like that it’s an expectation now. We expect to be in regional finals and we expect to win them. Our guys didn’t go extremely crazy when we did win because it’s nice to win and ultimately our goal is bigger, but we had to get this one first.”

The Trojans (21-2-1) advance to an IVC Sectional semifinal at noon Saturday to play the winner of Wednesday’s Monmouth-Roseville Regional final between Beardstown and Monmouth-Roseville.

“Obviously, with Monmouth being in our conference we’re familiar with them” Myers said. “We’re not very familiar with Beardstown. I think coach Rey [Arteaga] and I are going to go to the game to check it out. It’s going to be a tough battle.”

The Trojans started slow against Princeton.

The Tigers, who lost 9-0 to Mendota during the regular season, kept the Trojans off the board for the first 26 minutes before Mendota broke through on a corner kick.

Johan Cortez sent the ball across the face of the goal to the far post where Casas knocked it in.

“I saw David on the second post. He called for it, so I curled it close to the keeper,” Cortez said. “The wind was going the opposite way, so it helped with the curve. The keeper missed it and David was there to put that away.

“I think it was definitely a mental booster. We felt a lot better after the goal because there was a lot of pressure relieved. We needed a goal to get us into the game. After that, a lot more attacks started happening and we felt a lot more confident.”

Mendota added a second goal before half when Mauricio Salinas scored on an assist from Luis Ramirez for a 2-0 halftime lead.

“We came out pretty well,” Princeton coach David Gray said. “We competed for the first half. It was commitment to getting in position and defending as a group. We did a better job of that today than we did the first time we played them. We held them for a while, but that takes a lot of focus, commitment and discipline.

“We kind of lost our focus on a corner kick and let them score their first one. We still hung around but when they got the second one, that was a mental and emotional blow we struggled with.”

In the second half, Cortez kicked a ball from outside the box that curved into the upper right corner of the net, and he later poked in a cross from Isaac Diaz and completed a hat trick on a scramble in front of the net.

Hugo Falcon scored the final goal for Mendota.

“At halftime we had a talk about how we don’t have any more second chances,” Cortez said. “We can’t be starting off slow anymore. It’s postseason. It’s time to take every team seriously. I think at the start we weren’t mentally prepared. Princeton took it at us. We had a tough time. But second half we relaxed, took our time and the goals eventually came.”

The Tigers finish 4-12-5. Princeton won a postseason game for the first time since 2018 and advanced to a regional final for the first time since 2017 when the Tigers reached a sectional final.

“I’m really happy. We’ve been much more competitive this year,” Gray said. “We’ve been a stronger team. We’ve had more success in terms of wins and draws. We had some disappointments. We played some bad games but I think we played a lot of good games. Saturday’s regional semifinal was the first playoff game we’ve won in a while.

“The year overall is the program stepping in the right direction and hopefully that continues.”

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Members of the Mendota soccer team hold up the Class 1A Regional plaque after defeating Princeton on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024 at Serena High School. This is Mendota's sixth straight regional title. (Scott Anderson)