Just minutes into the second half and having already scored twice in the game, Century’s Dan Mende found himself with a one-on-one opportunity with Rigby goalie Martin Navarro.

    Mende unleashed a shot from about six yards out. Navarro was able to poke the ball away and keep Mende from recording the hat trick.

    The frustration of not recording the hat trick was erased in the 56th minute when Mende was able to head a crossing pass into the back of the net.

    Five minutes later, Mende took a pass and raced by three Rigby defender, and laced a shot into the left side of the net for his fourth goal of the game. He was substituted for a minute later.

    Mende’s offensive explosion and a solid Diamondbacks’ defense gave Century a 6-1 win over new district member Rigby Tuesday.

    “He scored four good goals, and overall he has been the key man for us,” Century head coach Rocky Rhoades said. “Everything runs through him, and in the games that he does not score he picks up assists.”

    Rhoades said that while Mende went through a stretch in the middle part of the season in which he did not score any goals, he found other ways to dominate the game.

    Tuesday against Rigby, Mende used his speed and ball handling ability to keep defenders at bay.

    “He obviously draws a ton of attention wherever he goes,” Rhoades said. “Dan is a great athlete, and he has (corrected) a lot of the bad habits he had before. Our team has really good rhythm to it because Dan is playing really simple in the middle third of the field. And, as a result, the rest of the team gets a really good flow to it.”

    Century controlled the run of play against Rigby, and because of that the Diamondbacks played most the first half in Rigby’s end of the field.

    Mende scored the Diamondbacks first two goals of the game. In the 21st minute, he took a free kick from Josh Goodwin, beat two defenders and placed the ball in a wide-open net.

    The second came in the 30th minute when he headed in a corner kick from Mark Yensen.

    Goodwin scored Century’s third goal on a penalty kick after making a run through the Rigby defense from midfield and getting tripped in the goal box.

    Century’s backline of Goodwin and Reece Foulkrod kept the area in front of second string goalie Ike Martinez clear most of the half. Rhoades said that his current backline had allowed just one goal since a 3-1 loss to Preston on Sept. 4. That one goal came in a Sept. 1, 1-0 loss at Blackfoot.

    Martinez was playing because normal starting goalie Mauricio Huerta was suspended.

    The freshman keeper was rarely challenged in the game, but when he was, Martinez made the save.

    “Ike is a freshman and a great athlete,” Rhoades said. “He is one of those guys were we really don’t know where to play him because he is so good at everything. He starts for us on the field and you could see today he is very comfortable in the goal.

    The Diamondbacks kept Rigby off the score sheet until the final minutes of the game when the Trojans got a goal from Alan Izucar.

    Other than Mende’s two goals in the second half, the Diamondbacks had a goal from Ben Huston.

    “We have a ton of freshmen and sophomores who are great players,” Rhoades said. “They are getting over the hump of playing teams older than them, and they are just confident that they are better players.

    The win over Rigby was Century’s fifth in its last six games.

    Century (7-4, 3-2 4A Fifth/Sixth District) hosts Highland Thursday at 4 p.m.