Mendota beats Aurora Central Catholic to break through for first state berth

MENDOTA – “Ten, nine, eight, seven …”

When the purple-and-yellow-clad fans in the nearly packed bleachers reached “zero,” the Mendota boys soccer players ran toward midfield, waving their arms up and down and leaping into each other’s arms as their teammates rushed off the bench to join them.

It was a countdown to history.

The Trojans beat Aurora Central Catholic 2-0 on Saturday to win the Class 1A Mendota Supersectional and advance to state for the first time in program history.

“It’s amazing,” Mendota junior Isaac Diaz said. “Our whole mission was to get here.

“It felt surreal [to do it at home] with all the fans supporting us at our field.”

The Trojans are the first Mendota team in any sport to advance to state since the baseball team placed third in Class A in 2003.

“It’s unbelievable,” Mendota junior goal keeper Mateo Goy said. “We’ve been talking about this since we were little kids watching the teams before, and now we’ve done it. It’s crazy. I’m so happy and proud of everybody. We’ve worked so hard for this. Every day in the summer just working our tails off.”

The Trojans have been knocking on the door for six years.

Mendota has won six consecutive regional finals, lost in two sectional finals and won a sectional championship in 2021 before losing in penalty kicks in the supersectional for its only loss of the season.

“Finally being able to achieve it is great,” Mendota coach Nick Myers said. “It’s like the big monkey is off our backs. We’ve been close the last four or five years. We’ve made multiple sectional title appearances and we could just never get over the hump. There was just something about this group from the beginning of the year. It was great vibes all season. I just felt like this was going to be the group that was going to finally do it.”

Mendota (24-2-1) will face Normal U-High (24-5-1) in a state semifinal at 7:15 p.m. Thursday at Hoffman Estates High School.

The Pioneers, who were Class 1A state runner-up last fall, earned a return trip to state with a 5-0 win over Manteno in the Herscher Supersectional on Saturday.

“It’s going to be way harder, bigger competition,” Diaz said. “We’ll prepare for it.”

Mendota had some strong scoring chances early Saturday.

A header off a corner kick just missed, and Diaz had a shot tip off the goalie and roll toward the net before a Chargers defender cleared it.

The Trojans broke through midway through the first half when Cesar Casas found the back of the net on a scramble in front of the goal off a throw-in.

“I realized that the defense made a mistake, and I was just there and I was able to put it in,” Casas said. “It felt great. It gave us the momentum.”

Mendota fought to maintain the one-goal advantage for nearly 55 minutes.

Just 1:45 into the second half, Goy punched an Aurora Central Catholic shot over the net.

With 14:09 left, Goy made a fully extended diving save to keep the Trojans ahead 1-0.

“I work for those,” Goy said. “Those are the saves I need to make, and that’s what I work for. I do those every day in practice.”

Goy said the Mendota defenders played a key role in the shutout.

“Our two center backs did a very good job,” Goy said. “With No. 1 [Matthew VanDeman], he played more central, then he would constantly come back to the front, which was a really weird rotation to have. But defensively, we did really well. I’m really proud of my defense.”

Diaz gave the Trojans insurance when he took a cross from Casas and scored with 6:04 left.

“Cesar Casas was on the wing. He played it to me on the floor fast and I just tapped it in,” Diaz said. “It was just a relief. We were defending a one-goal lead, so to get another one felt great.”

The Chargers, who had only one senior on the roster in Nathan Diedrich, finish 18-4-2.

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Players of Mendota celebrate win over Aurora Central Catholic High School with plaque on Saturday, November 2, 2024 at Richard E. Phalen, SR. Field in Mendota. (MaKade Rios of Shaw Local)