Mahomet-Seymour Soccer wins fifth-ever Regional Championship
By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com
Mahomet-Seymour’s fifth-ever regional championship in boys’ soccer came courtesy of a Friday win over an opponent the Bulldogs had lost to by three goals in the regular season.
M-S gained a measure of revenge on Friday, blanking Urbana 1-0 on the Tigers’ field. The victory not only moves coach Jeremy Davis’ team into the sectional semifinals, but also accounts for the school-record 17th triumph of the season.
Kadyn Jones’ second-half goal,on an assist from Eli Warren with 26 minutes remaining, was the lone score in the 80-minute match.
M-S (17-4-4) faces Morton (22-2-1) in a 5 p.m. sectional match on Tuesday at Bloomington High School.
Davis wasn’t surprised by the turnaround in his team from the previous game, which was also played at Urbana.
“The first time, the big thing was it was the Monday after homecoming and across the board, we didn’t play really well,” Davis said. “We didn’t stay focused and, in one 10-minute stretch, they scored three on us.”
In the rematch, the teams were tied 0-0 at intermission.
“We were playing more defensively and (offensively) we had very few chances,” Davis said.
One reason was that he switched Jake Janda into a more prominent defensive role in the first half.
It has been a quandary how to best use Janda.
“Jake’s our best defender, but he’s also our best scorer,” Davis said.
The coach opted to shift Luke Creel into Janda’s spot after the break, moving Janda into a defensive midfield/forward position.
“In the second half, we went back to what we had done and Kadyn and Eli were able to connect better with Jake,” Davis said.
Colten Brunner also played a pivotal second-half role as the Bulldogs posted their sixth shutout of the season and their second since the postseason began.
“He’s fantastic there because he prevents a lot of stuff from getting back to those guys,” Davis said. “We said for us to win, the defense would have to play well, and they did.”
Besides Creel, a senior, the defense featured three sophomores, Xavier Schmidt, Koby Eisenmenger and goalkeeper Keagon Ashby along with junior Aidan Hegarty.
Ashby stopped eight shots.
“Keagon was fantastic,” Davis said. “It was his best game of the year. One of his saves was on a beautiful shot, barely off the ground, and he got enough (of a touch) to push it wide.”
The other regional titles for M-S in boys’ soccer were in 2015, 2009, 2003 and 2002. The Bulldogs have never won a sectional crown in soccer, either with the boys’ or the girls’ programs.
When eight seniors graduated from the 2018 M-S boys’ team, some might have had lower expectations for this year’s squad.
“A lot of people were wondering if we had enough pieces,” Davis acknowledged. “It has taken a while, but the sophomores have played great and we’ve seen we can be the best team Mahomet has had.”
The offense has revolved around a trio of top-notch playmakers. Janda (29 goals), Warren (23 goals) and Jones (20 goals) have combined to score 72 goals. Collectively, they have also contributed 49 assists.
For the season, the team has netted 103 goals. Eighteen squad members have either a goal or an assist.
The Bulldogs are working on a streak of eight matches without a loss. In that span, M-S is 5-0-3. In its last six matches, five of which were wins, the team has permitted four goals.
Urbana finishes with a record of 11-5-2.
