Raiders’ ability to deliver quick strikes ensures Huskers never gain traction in efforts to rally

MENDOTA, Ill. — For a fleeting moment in both halves of Wednesday night’s Class 1A Mendota Sectional semifinal, the Serena boys soccer team saw a glimmer of hope.

Quincy Notre Dame extinguished it each time before it ever got bright.

The Husker trailed 2-0 nine minutes into the game, but a counterattack allowed them to generate some pressure in the attacking third of the field and throw a ball into danger in front of the goal. An awkward bounce off a QND defender’s head saw the ball go into the goal, slicing Serena’s deficit in half.

That lasted all of 53 seconds.

QND senior midfielder Brock Evans took a pass in the middle of the field and hammered home a shot to re-establish the two-goal lead and propel the Raiders to a 9-2 victory.

“We try to make sure we stay on top of it and make sure we’re in control of the game the whole time,” QND senior midfielder John Drew said.

That control was never in question, even after Serena’s Beau Raikes scored with 20:51 after some miscommunication between a pair of QND defenders. Tanner Anderson, QND’s career goal scoring leader, erased Serena’s goal by scoring 37 seconds later.

Just 17 seconds after that, Leo Cann headed in an Anderson cross to make it 7-2.

Just like that, any hope of a rally was gone.

“We bounced back very quickly after both goals,” QND coach Greg Reis said. “It’s a matter of us being switched on and switched off. We got switched off a couple of times to allow those things to happen, but for the most part tonight, we stayed switched on.”

QND’s dynamic offensive attack allows that to be the case.

The Raiders have scored 22 goals in three postseason games with Cann, a junior forward, netting a hat trick in each one. Anderson, who missed five of the six games prior to the regional championship while nursing a hip injury, has three goals in the last two games. And Cole Henkenmeier has three goals and three assists in the postseason.

“Those guys are playing at a high level and really working well together,” Reis said. “If they continue to do that, it gives us an opportunity to win every game.”