The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
RESOLUTE MENTOR WINS IN SHOOTOUT
Cardinals will face University in district final
The pendulum of penalty kicks doesn’t stop swinging mercilessly for even the most hardened souls.
When the moment arrives, it’s there and you better be ready for it.
Oct. 24 in a Division I district semifinal at Mayfield, Mentor was resolute, relentless – and via some heroics from Mason Rocco and Jake Sterio, the Cardinals reigned.
Rocco recorded a save in Round 4 of a penalty-kick shootout, Sterio slotted from the spot in Round 5 and Rocco started the party up Interstate 271 for the traveling faithful with a lunging save to finish off the Cardinals’ 4-3 shootout
win.
Mentor (8-9-2) will take on University, an 8-1 winner over South, in a D-I district title tilt at 7 p.m. Oct. 27 at North.
The sides played to a 1-1 draw through tense regulation and extra time.
And when it was required most, the Cardinals had the mettle to earn their biggest result in recent memory.
“Oh, PK’s ... every night for the last 2 1/2 weeks,” Mentor coach Mike Sesar said.
“These guys have been working extra hard coming through extra sessions. It wasn’t going well in the beginning. We had a tough schedule, but we worked our way out of it. And that’s what you see, the result of this playoff run.”
In regulation, both longtime area D-I powers, amid their seventh postseason meeting since 2005, notched a second-half goal.
The Wildcats (12-42) took a 1-0 lead in the 42nd minute. Brian Dlugos’ throw-in took a high bounce in the box. Jake Weissman barged in on an ambitious run for a left-footed banger upper-90, his 11th goal of the fall.
But as Sesar alluded, battle-tested from a demanding schedule, the Cardinals hung in to get an equalizer. In the 51st minute, Jake Mlakar, who had to change jerseys to No. 4 after getting blood on his No. 14 in the opening half, worked a nice give-and-go on the left flank. He served across the box for Michael Nadzam, who took care of a strike near post, his fifth goal of 2018, to make it a 1-1 match.
Both sides were tight
and organized in the back. Rocco came up with a pair of big saves in regulation, in the 64th and 77th, both on looks from pacey Wildcats striker Mohammad Alsodani. Then came PKs. Mayfield goalkeeper Abdullah Alrawi, who was hurt in the 27th minute, returned for the shootout and made a great acrobatic stop to his left in Round 1 to give the Wildcats the advantage.
But in Round 4, Rocco evened things with a save. Sterio calmly slotted in Round 5 with a rightfooted strike side net to make it 4-3, putting the onus on Rocco.
Sesar noted how his junior goalkeeper had been logging extra sessions on PKs recently with this type of moment in mind.
Rocco lunged left, got both gloves to it – and then got enveloped by his thrilled side.
“It’s crazy,” Rocco said. “We practice PKs in practice, but it can’t compare to the game. There is nothing like it. This is actually my first penalty-kick shootout I have ever played in.
“Personally, I like to look at the hips (when a shooter steps to the spot), because it’s better than just guessing randomly. You look, and you take an educated guess. It’s better than a
regular guess.”
Rocco took two pretty solid educated guesses to send his side to their first district final since Mentor’s memorable D-I state final run in 2013.
“On the first save, I had a feeling he was going to go to my right,” Rocco said. “He did. It wasn’t the best shot on the ground, so kind of an easy save. And the last one there, honestly? I can’t even tell you. I don’t even remember what happened. It’s just a blur.”
Rest assured, years from now, the memory will return.
On the opposite touchline, though, it was eerily quiet after a resurgent Wildcats side eyed their first district final since 2012, the last of their run of five straight regional berths.
After a shootout, lament is the unforgiving end of the pendulum.
“I thought it was a typical semifinal,” Mayfield coach Sean McNamara said. “It was frenetic and frantic. We didn’t play well in the first half. We kept bypassing the midfield, and we have two excellent midfielders. We played more controlled through the second half. We deserved the goal. I thought it was a well-taken goal. And in fairness to them, theirs was a good goal.”