Everything pointed to Mesa High and Dobson being an even matchup for the 6A East Valley Region boys soccer title on Thursday afternoon. A late first-half barrage by Mesa turned it into a romp.

Mesa scored four goals in an eight-minute span just before halftime to key a 6-1 triumph over Dobson at Jackrabbit Stadium.

The match, originally scheduled for Friday night, was moved to Thursday afternoon in hopes of beating rainy weather to the punch over the next three to four days. That it did.

A by-product of the 2 p.m. start (actually 2:20) was  Mesa allowed students to watch the game during the final period of the day. Many took advantage and the home stands were filled with as large a crowd as one would ever expect to see at a regular-season high school match.

Mesa coach T.J. Hagen thought that support spilled over to his players, many of them seniors, who were honored before the match for Senior Day.

"We made the change in game time Wednesday and the support was great, but unintended," Hagen said. "I think it pumped our guys up more than the normal game. Coming in both teams were playing equally well. We'd beaten the same opponents and by similar scores. It was a nice win."

Mesa is 11-6-1 overall, 5-0 in region and 8-3 in power-ranking games. The Jackrabbits clinched a berth at least for the play-in game to state next week although at No. 13 in the power rankiings they weren't in danger of missing out. Dobson, at No. 23, fell to 9-8-1 overall, 3-1 in region and 7-4 in power-ranking games. The Mustangs must finish in the top 24 to qualify for the play-in game. Dobson has one match left next week against Skyline.

Mesa scored first and quicky. Edwin Garcia, an assist-machine in the match, dished off to Javier Balderrama for a goal in the fifth minute. It was the first of Garcia's four assists. Mesa missed several other chances over the next 20 minutes or so allowing Dobson to stay close.

In the 29th minute the match got away from Dobson. Alex Salgado tallied to make it 2-0 off a Garcia assist. The next three goals belonged to junior Aaron Vindiola, who notched a hat trick in a matter of six minutes. All All of Mesa's other goals and assists belonged to seniors.  Garcia's third assist and one by Josh Cervantes came on two of Vindiola's tallies. Mesa took a 5-0 lead to intermission.

Dobson scored its lone goal in the 57th minute with  Alex Castillo connecting from about 25 yards out. Mesa finished the scoring in the 76th minute  - Jesus Tapia doing the honors via Garcia's fourth assist.

"We got outplayed and outhustled by Mesa," Dobson coach Jason Berg said. "Simple as that. They are region and city champs. They earned it and I'm happy for them."