Boys soccer: Second-half struggles send Harvest/Westminster Christian co-op to sectional loss

While fans and coaches may not like to take things slow in the first half, the cardiac kids from Mendota seem to love thriving in the second half.

The Trojans turned a scoreless first half into a blowout 6-0 victory over Harvest/Westminster Christian co-op in the Class 1A Indian Creek sectional championship Friday in Waterman.

“The last month we seem to start out slow and then go crazy in the second half,” Mendota coach Nick Meyers said. “I don’t know if we come out too nervous or what, but I think they’re getting confident that they can turn it on in the second half.”

The Trojans, who won their second consecutive sectional title and third in the last five years, return home Monday for the Mendota supersectional.

Mendota (23-4) will face the winner of Saturday’s Maroa-Forsyth sectional final between Alleman and Quincy Notre Dame.

“Coach just tells us play for the seniors,” Mendota junior Casas said. “They have played amazing for four years and we wanted to keep this going for them especially. The passing was just amazing, especially in the second half and now we have a chance to go back home again with a chance to go to state.”

The Trojans controlled the early part of the game, but it did not result in any goals in part due to Warriors goalie Trevor Schuler.

With 31 minutes left in the first half, the Warriors got a good look as Brian Powers took a shot, but Mateo Goy was ready for the stop for Mendota.

Five minutes later, Miles Meurer took a shot only to be denied again by Goy. Then with 22:40 left, Schuler made a finger-tip save on a shot from Casas.

As the Warriors were heading back down for an attack on back-to-back possessions, Mendota’s Angel Orozco and Luis Ramirez had outstanding defense to keep the Warriors scoreless.

Mendota had its share of opportunities as Mauricio Salinas’ shot was just wide of the net and Abel Nanez was denied by solid defense from Ethan Nagler as the game went into the halftime break with the score remaining 0-0.

The Trojans came out much more aggressive in the second half and it paid off in a big way.

Salinas got a rebound and blasted a shot from 20 yards out for the game’s first goal.

But the Trojans were just getting started as less than three minutes later, Casas picked up his first goal of the night as he settled the ball down in front of the net and made it 2-0 Mendota.

The onslaught didn’t stop there as Casas got a tremendous pass from Johan Cortez and made it 3-0.

The great defense and passing continued for the Trojans as Cortez passed to Nanez who found Arian Chavez who got a rebound and gave the Trojans a commanding 4-0 lead.

“I’m not sure why we play the way we do at the beginning and then turn it on in the second half,” Cortez said with a laugh. “But we came out aggressive and the passing was amazing and we were able to get the ball in the net and get the win.”

The Trojans were not done yet as Cortez drew out Schuler from the net with 16 minutes remaining and beat him to the ball and got the goal to make it 5-0.

“I thought we came out and executed our game plan perfectly,” Harvest/Westminster coach Pedro Assumpcao said. “We knew they had a lot of weapons and we wanted to push them outside and I thought we did that well in the first half. But it’s hard to keep a team like that down all night, and once they got the first couple goals, I think it became a mental thing after that and snowballed from there.”

Then 10 minutes later, Cortez made another great pass to Casas and he capitalized for a hat trick and a 6-0 advantage for the Trojans.