With one second left on the clock, Junior Ben Mendel stepped up to the box for a penalty kick in the sectional final against Ladue. With the home crowd lined up against the fence cheering for Mendel, he buried the shot into the bottom left corner, giving Central the victory and a trip to the Class 2 quarterfinals against St. Dominic. Although Central was defeated in penalty kicks against St. Dominic, Mendel helped lead the Colts throughout the season.

Mendel was less of a point scorer his sophomore season, scoring 3 goals and 1 assist. This season he transitioned into playing the forward position, getting the opportunity to score more goals.

“The transition was nice and being able to score goals is always fun,” Mendel said.

Mendel scored a team leading 15 goals and 34 points on the season, while also chipping in 5 assists. He helped pace the Colts to a 21-7-1 record on the season, while also being a leader as a junior on a team rich with seniors. The soccer team repeated the previous year’s success of 20 wins in 2011.

“It was a great season because we broke our the record for most wins in school history,” Mendel said. “We didn’t win the state championship like we wanted, but it was a good year, it is going to be tough to replace 11 seniors [next year] but we will find a way,” Mendel said.

Part of Mendel’s success this season was that his coaches had faith in him and his team was essentially the same as the season before bringing back key players like senior goalie Andrew Chekadanov.

“The team played really well this season, we picked up where we left last year and the coaches put me in a position where I could be successful,” Mendel said.

Working hard in the off season conditioned Mendel for his junior season. He played for a team called St. Louis Scott Gallagher Red, where he played forward. Mendel is looking forward to join another soccer team during the summer. This is because his ultimate goal is to get a scholarship for soccer.

“I would like to get a scholarship and play soccer in college,” Mendel said. I don’t want to stop playing when high school is over, soccer is what I want to do.”