Young reaches semis behind Mensah

Confidence is one thing Young’s Victor Mensah doesn’t lack on or off the field.

Despite only being a sophomore, it was Mensah’s poise that helped Young advance to the Final Four of the Public League Tournament after recording a 1-0 shootout victory over Kennedy Saturday afternoon in the quarterfinals.

Up next for the Dolphins (11-7-2) is Kelly, which recorded a 2-1 win over Juarez behind two goals from sophomore Humberto Rodriguez.

‘‘We’re going to win on Tuesday, because we have to,’’ Mensah said. ‘‘We work hard all the time, and now our hard work is paying off. We have a lot of confidence and know we can win.’’

Mensah drilled home the first penalty kick in the shootout to help Young grab an early lead. Josh Moran, Matt Joss and Alejandro Sanchez also tallied in the do-or-die situation. Goalie Eli Boyer came up with one big save to enable the Dolphins to advance.

‘‘I wasn’t nervous at all when I took my shot,’’ Mensah said. ‘‘We work on penalty kicks everyday at the end of practice, so we knew we could make them. Some people were worried about which way the goalie was going to go, but I wasn’t.’’

Young, which captured the girls Public League Tournament crown this past spring, is trying to join Mather, Amundsen and Lane as the only three programs to win both titles in the same year.

“Lately, we’ve been approaching things one game at a time,” Young coach Ian McCarthy said. “We know what we have to do to win, and now we’re two games away from the title.”