Cadets get a quality tie against St. Charles North

By Gary Larsen

If Marmion goalkeeper Brad White keeps hitting shots like the one hit in Tuesday’s 1-1 tie against St. Charles North, he’ll play himself right out of net.

With teammate and fellow goalkeeper Evan Lefelstein playing goal, White took his turn as a field player and made it count.

The junior sent a missile from the 18 tearing under the crossbar and over the outstretched hands of the North Stars’ 6-foot-4 keeper, Garrett Creasor, giving Marmion a 1-0 halftime lead.

White and Lefelstein shared goalkeeping duties all of last season.

“I’ve never had to play a keeper on the field and I don’t consider one a starter and one a backup,” Marmion coach Kevin O’Connor said of White and Lefelstein. “But we know Brad can help us on the field. He gives us a lot of energy at that right mid, and the shot he hit today was big-time.”

Junior Mike Frasca played a pivotal role in setting up White’s goal. Maley and Matt Switzer combined to get the ball to Frasca, who hammered two shots at point-blank range off a sprawling Garrett Creasor, who made consecutive stops on the play for the North Stars.

The ball popped out to him a third time when Frasca heard a voice. “I heard Brad calling for it, I saw him, and I was able to send it over to him,” Frasca said.

Frasca knows that it’s incumbent on the Marmion midfield to sort things out as quickly as possible, for a team figuring out where scoring will come from to start the season.

“Me, (Matt) Switzer, Juan Pablo (Jasso), and (Joe) Romanos – we have to create,” Frasca said. “St. Charles North had a few chances but for the most part we locked it down in the back. Now we just have to learn to build out of it instead of just kicking it up to the forwards.”

“It has to be an entire team effort and then once we score, we all have to defend.”

Marmion defended hard for much of Tuesday’s match against a North Stars team that picked up its intensity in the second half and found an equalizing goal early on, off the head of junior forward Mike Winhoffer.

The Cadets (3-0-2) will rely on their back line as scoring potential develops, and goalkeeper Lefelstein and defenders Mick Maley, Alex Ruble and company stood tall throughout the contest.

Except for one play.

Marmion’s lead lasted only a few minutes into the second half, when Winhoffer scored on a head shot from 8 yards out, on a serve from David Farr.

“We kept our 4-5-1 in the second half and inverted our midfielders. We went with two (defensive) midfielders,” O’Connor said. “But they had a 3-on-5 and they scored because we didn’t mark a guy up.

They were sending diagonal balls in and getting on the end of them. That’s how they created their biggest threats in the first half and that’s what we talked about at halftime. But three minutes into the second half they send in a diagonal ball and get on the end of it, and the guy was wide open. That can’t happen.

I’m not disappointed. If you’d have told me we’d come out of here with a draw against St. Charles North, I’d have taken it. I’m just disappointed that we had the lead and didn’t protect it.”

In the second half, Lefelstein made a quality save at the post and fielded everything the North Stars sent his way to the final buzzer.

“I thought today our midfield needed to be a little better, but maybe that’s because St. Charles North is so good,” O’Connor said. “But we need to possess a little bit better, and touch a little bit cleaner, but we’re learning. We’re improving.”

“We have good composure in back,” Frasca said. “We just lost it for a minute and that’s when they scored. Against West Chicago (a 0-0 tie) we locked it down, and here we locked it down for the most part. In the end, this was a great result for us.”

O’Connor is also grateful that his program makes the trip to the Barrington Classic, now in its 22nd year, to face the likes of St. Charles North, Lake Zurich, and the host Broncos.

“Thank God we keep getting invited back,” O’Connor said. “I told (Barrington coach) Scott Steib that he could drop us from the tournament if he didn’t think we were worthy, but he told me we’re definitely worthy and I appreciate that.”

This is so good for us because to me, this and the Best of the West are two of the top tournaments in the state. I’m glad we can compete in one of them.”