Staff photo / Greg Macafee The Cardinal Mooney boys soccer team poses for a photo after defeating Warren JFK 4-0 in a Division III district final at Niles’ Bo Rein Stadium Saturday afternoon.

NILES — Two years ago, the Cardinal Mooney boys soccer team made a run to the state championship, and they are looking to do it again.

The top-seeded Cardinals (15-3-1) took the first step Saturday afternoon by dispatching the fifth-seeded Kennedy Eagles, 4-0, to capture the Division III, Niles I district title.

“It’s a relief to come out on top. I mean, JFK put up a tough battle. We already faced each other once, and it’s always tough to beat the same team twice,” Cardinal Mooney coach Matt Britton said. “They put up a great test today, but I’m proud of the boys and how they responded. It wasn’t our cleanest performance, but we did enough to get it done.”

In that first meeting earlier this season, the Cardinals came away with a convincing 7-0 victory over the Eagles (14-4-1). So, as the two teams kicked off on at Niles’ Bo Rein stadium, Kennedy coach Anthony Ledenko opted to go with a defensive approach.

Rather than start leading goal-scorer Nick Ryan, who tallied 31 goals this season, in his normal forward position, the talented sophomore solidified the defensive line for the Eagles, and they held off the Cardinals for most of the first half.

“He’s got a really good soccer IQ, and he’s really fast, so no one was going to beat him over the top or through the middle,” Ledenko said. “That’s what we were hoping to do. Not pack it in essentially, but make them as nervous as possible.”

The Eagles held strong for most of the first half, but the Cardinals put on a relentless onslaught of offensive attack that had the Eagles on their heels. It started right off the bat as Aidan Hryb broke through the Eagles defense just two minutes into the game on a ball over the top but he placed his shot off the right post.

With just under 10 minutes to play, the Cardinals had another of their many opportunities in the first half on a cross into the box, but Kennedy goalkeeper Nico Ciminero came up with one of his many saves to keep the Cardinals at bay.

“He makes playing goalkeeper look like so much fun,” Ledenko said. “He’s just a hell of a guy. I love watching him play. He had a game today to say the least.”

But, the onslaught continued, and with over eight minutes left in the first half Mason Janis finally found the back of the net for Mooney, finishing off an attack with a right-footed shot to the left side of the net for the 1-0 lead.

“I saw that the goalie kinda came out so I just took a touch and when he went back, I just ripped it,” Janis said. “No thoughts, I just hit it back post.”

Janis added his second of the game in the second half on a cross from Hryb. It came less than a minute after Angel Alvarez netted a goal after his shot from the 18-yard box deflected off a Kennedy defender with 25:34 left in the second half.

The two goals came moments after Kennedy elected to move Ryan back up to the front line to try and create more offensive pressure. But, even before that, the Cardinals knew that their offense was due.

“I think they tried to pack the box, but what we do in practice is we just try to move the ball around,” Janis said. “So we’ve worked to be patient and stuff like that. So after those first couple shots in the first couple of minutes, I thought we would be fine.”

Patrick Dambrogio added the final goal of the game with a lengthy shot from outside the 18-yard-box to seal the victory late and secure Mooney’s second district title in three years.

With a group of leaders from their state runner-up finish a few years ago, the Cardinals are confident in their abilities and have their eyes set on returning to Columbus.

“This was an expectation, this was goal one,” Britton said. “We have three hurdles to jump. Districts is first, regionals is next and then the state championship. So we have the expectations and we’re gonna try to meet all three.”

Cardinal Mooney will move on to face Wickliffe on Wednesday night at Boardman High School in the regional semifinals.