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Strong second half propels Mendota boys soccer to sectional final · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Strong second half, propels Mendota boys soccer to sectional final. This
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  article is being read by an automated voice, brought to you by
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  Everlet. Finally breaking a scoreless deadlock early in the second half, the
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  Mendota boys soccer team extended its postseason run as The
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  Trojans defeated Winnebago 2-0 in a Class 1-A Indian Creek Sectional Semifinal
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  Monday at Indian Creek Middle School in Waterman. After a first period
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  featuring few offensive opportunities, Mendota, may first, twenty, came out firing after
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  halftime and took control of The match down the stretch. The Trojans
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  are 20-game winners for the fourth straight season and move on to
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  Friday's sectional final. The first half saw Mendota put just two shots
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  on goal out of seven total attempts as Winnebago, fourteen and eight,
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  fought the Trojans bitterly for possession. The Indians had an early goal
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  waved off due to an offside infraction, and managed only one other
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  shot attempt of their own before the break. I think that was
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  one of the poorest performances we've had in a first half. Mendota
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  coach Nick Myers said, I think a lot of it was nerves.
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  We do have a younger team this year, but all four of
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  us coaches told them all the same things at halftime, relax, play
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  with more intensity, and play together, believe in each other. And we
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  came out with much more intensity in
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  the second half, Coming out of halftime, the Trojans squeezed off three
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  shot attempts in the first our minutes. Isaac Diaz narrowly missed curling
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  a shot into them lower right hand corner, and Omar Nannez hammered
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  a shot straight at Winnebago goalkeeper Noah Mellon just before Diaz came
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  back seconds later with another shot that required Mellon's intervention. We played
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  well in the first half and we talked about being consistent and
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  continuing that into the second half. Winnebago coach Derek Millin said, I
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  believe we did that to the best of our ability, but Mendota's
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  real strong and the best of luck to the going forward. Finally
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  opening the scoring with 32-37 to play was the Trojans Ceser Casas,
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  who came from his position to the left of goal to the
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  middle of the field just inside the penalty box to meet a
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  pass from Daniel Garcia. Casas fired the ball into the right side
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  of the goal lighting a fire under the entire Mendota side. After
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  the first half we were talking about how we needed to relax,
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  just pass the ball on the ground, and play simple, Garcia said.
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  I got one to Caesar, and he put it in the goal.
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  That's ball we needed to get fired up. The Indians had an
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  opportunity for a set piece after Mendoza's able Nanas was issued a
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  yellow card for a hard foul. Aidan Rasner launched a free kick
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  at the goal from about 30 yards away straight at Trojan goalkeeper
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  Gianni Figueroa who deftly handled and cleared the ball. With 1616 to
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  play, Mendota doubled its lead as Garcia again fed the ball to
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  Casas. Posted up at the top of the penalty box with his
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  back to the goal, Casas turned and struck the ball in a
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  single motion to find the back of The
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  net once again. We came out with much more intensity in the
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  second half, Myers said. We put them under pressure in the first
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  five minutes multiple times. Caesar getting the first one, and we were
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  able to play a little more loose and take more chances. He
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  always seems to find a way to find the net in the
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  biggest games. He's won us two sectionals now with big goals and
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  hopefully he gets us another one on Friday. The Trojans will play
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  Anne Friday's sectional final, also at Indian Creek Middle School, against the
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  host Indian Creek. The Timberwolves 16-2 shut out Genoa Kingston 3-0 in
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  Monday's second semi-final. Play will begin at 7 p.m.