Cadets snare regional title with win over Kaneland

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By Steve Nemeth

Technically, only one player scored a goal, but as far as Marmion coach Kevin O’Connor was concerned, the only way to score the Cadets’ 1-0 regional championship triumph Saturday night was as a “team” victory.

And that certainly made sense to anyone who saw Marmion edge Kaneland by making a first-half goal stand up over the course of a physical and hard-fought battle.

The loss ended the Knights’ bid for a second straight regional trophy at 12-7-1 while the Cadets move on with a six-match win streak and a 16-6-3 ledger.

Next up is a Tuesday 5 pm semifinal contest in the Freeport Sectional against United Township of East Moline, the winner of the Rock Island Regional. The Panthers (12-11-1) used two goals in the opening 12 minutes of a Friday 3-0 win over Orion-Sherrard for the ninth regional plaque in a UTHS resume that includes an undefeated (24-0-1) state championship in 1999, a year after the school took fourth.

“We got huge contributions from everybody, there wasn’t a player on our team that didn’t play guts out every minute they were on the field,” O’Connor insisted. “This was a tremendous team effort on our part, I thought we played very hard, and for the most part, very well, our possession was good as a team and that was a key.

“But we really lost a lot with Switzer (being sidelined), that’s where, as a team we just glued together. Basically we put this game on Brad White, Mick Maley, Alex Ruble, and Mike Frasca. (Luke) Elder’s work up top was incredible. Eddie (Graham) in the middle was really something, (Luke) DiSimone, (Alex) Lopez, I should just name everybody because to me, this was a real team effort,” O’Connor said.

The contest began with Kaneland taking several blasts on the Cadets’ net and White gathered them up including a well-aimed header by Kaneland scoring leader Jordan Escobedo. Midway through the opening half, Switzer was sidelined by an injury forcing Marmion to focus harder and that paid off with 11:31 left before halftime.

That’s when Flynn Collins chalked up his fourth assist of the season by setting up Maley for a left-side rocket of a shot that landed inside the right post.

“I looked up and saw him (Maley) and played the ball through because he’s a great finisher,” Collins explained. “(He’s) really a one of a kind player and was able to finish; it was just a beauty of a goal. One of the prettiest goals I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“I got around the guy in front of me and took a touch with my right foot and just let it rip,” Maley said of his 18th goal of the season. “I saw the goalie was kind of shading near post so I hit it back post and as soon as I hit it I knew it was in.”

A pivotal point in the second half occurred with 26:16 left in regulation when a Kaneland trip inside the box resulted in Marmion being awarded a penalty kick opportunity. The Cadets’ Mike Frasca was hoping for his 40th goal, but Knights’ goalie Marshall Farthing came up big diving to his right for a tremendous save.

“That was huge, it kept us in,” Kaneland coach Scott Parillo insisted. “Obviously they score that goal, we’re probably done. We tried pushing some people up and thought maybe we’d get a chance to get one but we didn’t.

“Overall, we played well, they were more aggressive and possessed the ball better than us and we don’t run into that a lot. Anybody who has covered us knows we possess the ball and tonight we got out-possessed,” Parillo noted. “We had our chances early, if we make one of those in first couple minutes, it’s a whole different ballgame.”

Instead it was a nail-biting finish as the intensity went up proportionally as time wound down with Kaneland fans hoping for an equalizer and the Marmion supporters eager to see the scoreboard clock register zeroes to match what was listed for the Knights.
Ultimately it became the sixth solo shutout for White and the eighth “clean sheet” for the Cadets.

“It’s huge to get the shutout, but it was not at all a solo effort,” White said. “Our defense came up big, especially (Alex) Ruble, he was out a couple games and It was huge to have him back. There was a ball coming on a breakaway -- which was probably the closest thing they had to a goal opportunity -- and he just came in with a slide and took the ball off (the Kaneland player’s) foot. (Tonight) was a good effort from all our backs, plus the outside mids did a great job tracking back, it was mostly organization in back, which is why we did so great defensively.”

O’Connor, who announced his decision to retire after this, his 16th season since launching the Marmion program, was happy to have his hands on a regional plaque.

“Everybody plays for a regional.  We weren’t looking past (Kaneland) or ahead, we just wanted this win. Every program aspires to win a regional because you can’t go any further without first winning a regional,” O’Connor added. “It means a great deal to our program, to our players, and to the underclassmen because they’ve already got a goal to shoot for next year. So for everybody, every post-season win means a great deal.”

“It means so much because we lost to Burlington (Central) last year and basically, whoever won that would get to state, and they got pretty far,” Collins explained. “We’ve got to get to state for coach and he means so much to this program; we’ve got to go out with a bang.”

“Anything I can do to help our team win is satisfying,” Maley added. “But the goal was just such a small individual part of our (overall) team goal. We’ll enjoy this one, but we’ve got East Moline on Tuesday, we’ve got to focus. The way we played tonight, I feel pretty confident.”