CHILLICOTHE – Not many people had fingernails left after Mendota and Earlville-Leland-Paw Paw played a real nail-biter in the championship game of the Chillicothe (IVC) Class 1A Sectional Soccer Tournament on Oct. 20.

The two soccer teams that are just 13 miles apart traveled all the way to Chillicothe and they put on a real show before a large throng of residents from both communities that made the long trek with them.

The two teams battled hard for 80 minutes and when the final buzzer sounded, it was Earlville-Leland-Paw Paw that prevailed, 3-2, to advance to the East Peoria Supersectional. The Red Raiders played Decatur St. Teresa on Tuesday night for a chance to move on to the state tournament.

It looked like the two teams were going to play a scoreless first half, but the Red Raiders struck with just 46 lefts in the half on a goal by Ben Sasche.

Earlville-Leland-Paw Paw had an opportunity to double its lead at the 54-minute mark when Devyn Kennedy stepped in for a penalty kick, but his shot to the right side of the goal was stopped by a stretched-out Joel Figueroa to keep the margin at one.

Seven more minutes elapsed before the Trojans finally were able to break through with their first goal. A throw-in by Josue Arteaga was headed into the air by Eddie Perez and then headed again by Emiliano Arteaga past Red Raider goalie Michael Sansone to tie the game at 1-1 at the 62^nd minute mark.

Earlville-Leland-Paw Paw didn’t waste much time in regaining the lead. Just five minutes after Mendota tied it, Brennan McNally was able to sneak the ball by Figueroa to make it 2-1 Red Raiders.

Then in the 73^rd minute, Earlville-Leland-Paw Paw added some much-needed cushion when Landon Larkin headed in a goal off a long throw-in from Jared Pickert to increase the lead to 3-1.

The Trojans weren’t through, however, as freshman Yahir Diaz took a nice pass from classmate Josue Arteaga and banged home a goal in the 76^th minute to make it 3-2.

The Red Raiders were then able to move the ball around enough in the final 4:55 of the contest to keep the Mendota offense from getting off a shot.

“Earlville is a quality team and they find ways to score when you don’t know how they do it,” said Mendota coach Jason Artman, whose team lost to the Red Raiders, 3-1, in September.

“We are very familiar with each other and we knew it was going to be a hard-fought and close game. We knew it would probably come down to one goal and they got us today by one. Both teams scraped to create one goal. I felt after it was tied 1-1, they created more chances than we did.”

Mendota (20-4-1) finished with seven shots on goal compared to nine for Earlville-Leland-Paw Paw, which improved its record to 19-1-1.

“Earlville has a great tradition in soccer and we’ve been trying to build a strong tradition like they have,” added Artman. “I think we are doing that and it showed out here against a very good opponent. I’m proud of the way our guys played, it’s just tough to go out like that.”

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Mendota advanced to the sectional championship game with a thrilling 2-0 double-overtime triumph over Monmouth-Roseville on Oct. 17.

Shots on goal were hard to come by for both teams and the game was a 0-0 stalemate through 80 minutes of play.

The Trojans finally broke the scoreless tie in the first overtime session when Perez got the ball past the Monmouth-Roseville goalie on a penalty kick to make it 1-0 Mendota.

Then in the second overtime, Diaz took a pass from Emiliano Arteaga and booted in the second goal to provide the final margin of victory for Mendota.

Figueroa was between the pipes for the Trojans and stopped four shots on goal by Titans. Mendota had just five shots on goal in the contest.