Crusaders can't follow up on win, claim draw with Celtics

 

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By Curt Herron

It's safe to sat that this may be the most frustrating season during Nick Markulin's long career at Brother Rice.

Through their initial dozen matches, the Crusaders had played to four draws while losing the other eight contests.

Barring a miraculous finish, the veteran coach seems assured of suffering his first losing season with the program.

The drought ended on Saturday when Rice claimed a 2-0 nonconference home win over Horlick from Racine, Wisconsin.

On Tuesday, Markulin's squad hoped to record back-to-back victories when they played host to Providence Catholic.

And although the Celtics have also struggled this year, they were able to deny the Crusaders of their second win.

The squads walked out of Rice's stadium in Chicago's Mount Greenwood with the same score as when the match began.

After playing 100 minutes without a goal, the teams accepted a 0-0 draw in a Chicago Catholic League Blue match.

While the Celtics were able to take something positive away from the match, the draw was disappointing for Rice.

The Crusaders had plenty of chances during the final hour but were still blanked for the sixth time this season.

As a result of the draw, the Crusaders moved to 0-4-1 in League play while the Celtics are 0-2-1 in the CCL Blue.

"You could see the selfishness throughout the game, especially in the overtime," Markulin said. "If you can't make shots in practice, what makes you think you can do it here?

"I'm not going to fault anyone for something technical. If you don't have God-given speed, that's okay. But our players need to capitalize on the things that they can do well.

"I may have to go with younger kids and get them some experience in the next few games. We'll try to be respectable by playing Catenaccio, an Italian system of total defense."

Youngsters Markulin is upbeat about are freshman keeper Gerardo Guiterrez, freshman Matt Pikowski and sophomore Brian Kane.

The Crusaders get the opportunity to work on some new things this weekend when they compete in a tournament in St. Louis.

Rice witnessed a lesson in futility during the final half as good chances came and went without serious threats on goal.

And when the Crusaders did challenge, they were denied by Celtic keeper Brian McNamee, who posted his initial shutout.

PC actually had the first good chances of the final half but Guiterrez stopped tries by Jake Land and Ben Salvador.

From then on, however, it was mostly Rice with Brian Kane and Patrick McLaughlin having shots deflected a bit later.

Just before the midpoint of half two, Joshua Chavez was denied while Kane's free kick was punched away by McNamee.

Down the stretch, Gustavo Herrera was stopped on a header and Kane's corner led to a short try that was hauled in.

Rice went a man down in the 76th minute after a player drew a red card but it successfully reached the overtimes.

In the initial 10-minute session, PC's Marty Maloney sent a pair of attempts to Guiterrez, who came away with stops.

During the final overtime, the hosts applied the pressure on the Celtic goal but most of the shots were off the mark.

And the Crusaders couldn't capitalize when McNamee briefly left the match with a yellow card during the late going.

"We struggled early on this season but we're starting to put things together," Celtics coach Dan Potempa said. "We're starting to play like I thought we potentially could.

"Walking away with a draw at Brother Rice is never a bad day, in my opinion. I didn't think we capitalized when we went up a man but you have to walk away with the positives.

"The kids are starting to buy into the stuff that we've had them working on all year. We're trying to get them to work together as a team, both offensively and defensively.

"Nate White has done a good job of stepping into the sweeper role and Ben Salvador has been a workhorse up top and opportunities we get are usually created by his hard work."