Salina South’s boys soccer team claimed a third straight Class 5A regional championship Thursday night, scoring a pair of second-half goals to upset No. 3 West seed Topeka West, 2-0, at Hummer Sports Complex in Topeka.

Malcon Martinez-Zuniga broke a scoreless tie in the 45th minute and Saul Cabral added an insurance goal in the 64th as the sixth-seeded Cougars improved to 13-5 with the West Region 3 title. They will be back on the road to face No. 1 West seed Maize South (16-1-1) at 6 p.m. Monday in the 5A quarterfinals with a state Final Four berth on the line.

“Our guys came out with a lot of energy and really played well as a team,” said South coach Trey Crow, whose Cougars improved to 13-5 while avenging a regular-season 3-2 loss to Topeka West (13-3-2) on Sept. 13 in the finals of the Salina South Invitational. “Defensively we just shut them down, and offensively we put a lot of pressure on them.”

Both South goals came off corner kick set pieces.

Five minutes into the second half, Yaden Martinez served the ball from the right corner to Martinez-Zuniga, who headed it in at the far post. The second goal also was initiated by a Montanez corner that bounced off several players in the box before Cabral poked it in.

“I felt we controlled the game,” Crow said. “They had a couple of really good chances, and we had five or six beyond the goals. “Our guys fought hard the whole time, and any time (Topeka West) shot it somebody would clear.

“The couple of shots they did get, Cello (goalkeeper Marcello Escalante) made nice saves to keep the clean sheet.”

As was the case with the Topeka West game, South faces a rematch against Maize South after falling at 3-1 at home to the Mavericks on Oct. 2.

“They’re solid again,” Crow said of Maize South, which beat Goddard Eisenhower, 3-1, Thursday in its regional final. “We battled hard the first time but came out a little flat.

“Like the (the first game against) Topeka West, we came out a little flat and they scored in the first 30 seconds, but it was 2-1 for a while before they got a late penalty kick. It was close the first time, it just looked worse with their penalty kick in the last minute.”

In Thursday’s other West regional finals, No. 2 seed Newton (15-3) beat Bishop Carroll, 1-0, and No. 5 Kapaun-Mt. Carmel (13-5) blanked Hutchinson, 5-0.

The surviving teams were reseeded following the regional finals, leaving Maize South at No. 1, followed by Newton, Kapaun and South. Kapaun will travel to Newton for Monday’s other quarterfinal.