Senior forward Charlene Mendoza has been battling a leg injury for just about the entire season. As she closed in on Bloom’s career goals record, the injury worsened and forced her to the sideline.
Mendoza was distraught, not knowing when she would return to action.
“It was stressful,” Mendoza said. “I felt like I wasn’t going to get back on the field. My motivation kind of went down the first couple days. I was crying myself to sleep for a couple nights because I just wanted the record so bad.”
Mendoza, a South Suburban College recruit, sat out for two weeks but came back strong and started putting the ball in the back of the net again.
In a 5-1 home win over Marian Catholic on April 25, Mendoza scored her 119th career goal, breaking the program record previously held by Jordan Wallek.
“I scored and then I remembered I had to celebrate with (Bloom coach Zack Radtke), so I was running off the field to him,” Mendoza said. “They stopped the game for a few minutes, gave me the plaque and we got to celebrate with my parents and my family.
“Everyone keeps saying that’s the best way I could have done it — on our home field and against Marian. Everything happens for a reason.”
Radtke noticed Mendoza’s leg was bothering her in the second game of the season.
“She continued to keep trying to fight through it,” Radtke said. “In that Crete-Monee game (on April 4), you could tell it was aggravated way more than it needed to be, so after that, she sat out for a couple weeks.
“It was hard to keep her off the field. She really wanted to get back out there.”
Mendoza, who will now try to chase down the overall school record of 126 career goals scored for the boys team by 2021 graduate Christian Munoz, is still trying to wrap her head around what she’s accomplished.
“Everything happened so quickly,” she said. “I kind of haven’t fully processed it in my head. There was so much work and now it’s happened, and it feels so surreal.
“It’s taken a lot of work, year-round, in season and out of season. I’m making sure I’m outworking everyone else and myself from the previous day. It’s very draining, but those are the sacrifices you have to do.”
Mendoza’s numbers are even more impressive considering her freshman season was canceled due to the pandemic.
“It’s upsetting to me because I know I could have done way more if I had a freshman season,” she said. “But it kind of makes me feel good knowing that I did this in 2 1/2 years, and the last record, the girl did it in four years.”
T.F.’s turnaround: T.F. United is thriving under first-year coach Aaron Zambrano. The Meteors have won nine straight South Suburban Blue games, highlighted by a big 2-1 win April 27 over Tinley Park, which had previously been unbeaten in conference play.
Zambrano credits a trio of seniors for leading the way for T.F. United (11-4, 9-1). Berenice Zepeda has 18 goals and nine assists, Alanis Gonzalez has 11 goals and 25 assists and Katie Juarez has led the defense.
“Those three have been really good and key for us,” Zambrano said. “Having a new system and a new coach is a big change for anybody. Them believing in the system and believing in what we do in practice and having that translate into games has helped a lot.”
Seeds planted: Voting for sectional seedings was completed last week. Lincoln-Way Central, looking to return to state after a third-place finish in Class 3A, is the top seed in the Shepard Sectional, followed by district rivals Lincoln-Way East and Lincoln-Way West.
In Class 2A, De La Salle and Tinley Park are the top two seeds in the Kankakee Sectional, while Lemont is seeded second in the Nazareth Sectional.
Steve Millar is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.