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ESTERO — Estero High forward Matt Rhoades had been mentally replaying the shot he sent over the crossbar of a wide-open goal in a district championship win for the past week.

This time against Lely, the senior was determined not to do the same thing.

As it turned out, not only was Rhoades on point, but so were all of his teammates, as the Wildcats made quick work of Lely, 8-0, in Thursday night's regional quarterfinal match at Wildcat Stadium.

Rhoades scored four goals in the game, which was stopped with just over 12 minutes left in the second half.

"In the Cypress game I choked pretty bad and missed an open goal from like six yards away," Rhoades said. "I've been working on finishing all week, and I made up for it tonight."

He did so in spectacular fashion. Rhoades' most impressive goal came when he put Estero up 6-0 in the second half.

On a free kick in Lely's defensive third of the field, defender Nick Brunco started a game of keep-away with teammate Alfredo Lerma and the Lely defense. Eventually, Lerma managed to send a cross the length of Lely's penalty box to Rhoades. As the ball reached the striker's feet, defender Adolfo Bedolla slid in hard, bringing Rhoades down.

In an impressive display of coordination, Rhoades managed to flick the ball with his back foot as he was falling from the tackle and still managed to score.

"I wasn't expecting this tonight," Estero head coach John Robinson said. "We had been playing to where we were getting up in the first half and just coming out dead in the second half. But tonight we told the guys, 'Let's do more to not be flat. Let's do something better.'"

Robinson called it.

After scoring four goals in the first half, Lely nearly scored early in the second, when James Clark took the ball on a run down the far sideline. After taking it deep into Estero territory, he sent a beautiful cross to Eusebio Deleon at the top of the Wildcat penalty box. Deleon took a clean shot, but Estero keeper Jarret Brown was able to control it and preserve the clean sheet.

Coming into the game, Lely had not allowed more than four goals in a contest all season. However, after scoring only one goal against Naples in districts, Thursday made two consecutive games without a Trojan goal. Lely lost to Golden Gate, 2-0, in the District 4A-12 championship game.

Even with the anemic play on offense heading into the match, Lely coach Rob Schank expected more out of his team against the Wildcats.

"When you get mercy-ruled in a state game, it's no fun at all," he said. "I don't know what was in the water, or who was in our uniforms tonight, but that was a very poor display of Lely soccer."

In Lely's defense, Jerry Reyes, the Trojans' leading goal-scorer was ineligible for the game, but his replacement, Amos Aley, rarely had a clean look at the goal. An opportunity for Ben Jean in front of Estero's net that was sent wide just before halftime was all the Trojan strikers had to show for the game.

Estero was also without one of its best players in Spencer Preston, but Abdelhak Benali filled in marvelously at stopper, winning every ball put in the air, helping with pressure on offense and disrupting Lely passing lanes.

With the win, Estero moves on to play Golden Gate at home on Tuesday at 7 p.m.