Mater Dei boys soccer clinches Trinity League title against JSerra

SANTA ANA — With the Trinity League championship on the line, Mater Dei soccer player Santiago Schelotto had one prevailing thought heading into the Monarchs’ game against JSerra on Friday.

“I just want to dominate,” the senior forward said. “That’s it — dominate.”

And dominate, he did.

Schelotto scored three goals and assisted on a goal as the Monarchs defeated JSerra, 4-1, to win their second Trinity League title in the past three years.

Schelotto also scored the only goal in Mater Dei’s 1-0 victory over the Lions on Jan. 14.

“You know, big-time players rise to big-time games,” Mater Dei coach Sean Ganey said of Schelotto’s performance. “And he’s been waiting for this moment for four years. He is like what we want our kids to look like. He is just so into it.”

The Monarchs, the top-ranked team in Orange County, improved to 12-1-2 overall and 6-1-2 in league with one game remaining, against St. John Bosco on Tuesday at Mater Dei.

No. 4 JSerra (6-4-3, 4-3-2) is in third place and can move into second with a victory over Santa Margarita on Tuesday combined with a loss by Servite (10-6-1, 5-3-1).

Schelotto scored on a free kick from 30 yards to give the Monarchs a 1-0 lead 21 minutes into the match.

Schelotto was lined up in front of the goal and kicked the ball through a small opening in a wall of defenders and into the right side of the goal.

Three minutes later, Vincent Gomez was running toward the goal when he took a vertical pass from Schelotto and kicked it into the goal to give Mater Dei a 2-0.

The Lions got back into the match when Hudson Garner scored on a penalty kick in the 30th minute.

But Mater Dei built the lead back up to two when Schelotto scored from a wide angle one minute into the second half.

“We were playing for something tonight, which is nice,” JSerra coach Erik Kirsch said. “We were playing to win it. And we were playing to try to keep up with the group. I thought the last 20 minutes of the first half we started to kind of finding something. But you can’t concede the first minute into the second half and go down 3-1 to a team like this.”

Then Schelotto scored his third goal on a sequence that started with a Mater Dei corner kick where the Lions were unable to clear the ball out of their zone.

The three-goal performance was the second of the season for Schelotto, who scored three goals in the Monarchs’ 6-1 victory over Woodbridge in the first game of the season on Dec. 10.

“But this one is what matters,” Schelotto said. “I’m proud of this team. The team won it all. It’s not only me. It’s the team.”