Cadets fall on wicked strike from Reopelle
Marmion fails to score in 1-0 loss to Burlington

 

By Darryl Mellema

You have to say this – Kyle Reopelle hit one superb shot to knock Marmion from the IHSA Class 2A tournament.

But the Cadets walked off the field at Burlington Central wondering how a match that had started so promisingly ended as a 1-0 win for Reopelle and the host Rockets. That was why, as Central celebrated, Marmion moved from the field in anger, sadness, and with heads bowed or heads shaking.

“That was a wonderful strike,” Marmion coach Kevin O’Connor said. “One strike shouldn’t have been the determining factor of the game.”

The teams played on Monday due to a lightning-enforced cancellation of their scheduled Saturday encounter. The Cadets watched the rain pour down from their team dugout, singing songs as varied as “Desperado,” “The Star Spangled Banner” and O’Connor’s inclusion: “McNamara’s Band.”

That same sense of togetherness showed itself early in the match, and a brief review of the 30 minutes before Reopelle’s goal showed wave after wave of Marmion attacks, and some strong efforts on goal as well.

Within seven minutes, the Cadets (13-6-6) were nearly ahead when Mike Frasca nearly left the impression of the ball in the crossbar with a powerful strike. But the ball caromed back into play.

Marmion’s domination continued with Mick Maley blazing a shot over the bar after 12 minutes. The run of strong Cadets’ play culminated when Joe Romanos was tripped with 15 minutes to go just outside the penalty area and Maley hit the ensuing free kick off the right post.

Shortly after, Maley took a free kick that eventually found Frasca, who forced a save from Central keeper Riley Jensen.

“The soccer gods weren’t with us,” O’Connor said. “We put one off the crossbar and one off the goalpost and had one in the second half as well.”

But then everything changed when Central (17-4-3) got a free kick of its own 35 yards to go with 11 minutes left. Reopelle stepped up and sent the ball tearing through the evening sky. Marmion keeper Brad White dived and got a hand to the ball, but the shot had too much pace and deflected off White’s hand and went into the upper left corner of the net.

“(Central) won the moments they had to,” O’Connor said. “This game is about winning moments. We had some moments where we couldn’t quite finish it.”

Goals always change matches, especially matches in which something is at stake. Buoyed by their goal, Central settled into a pattern and Marmion’s play became uncharacteristically ragged as the Cadets chased a tying goal. The result was that the half-hour after Reopelle scored, there was precious little action in either penalty area.

“Central played extremely hard,” O’Connor said. “I felt like we lacked a little bit of urgency in the second half.”

Playing on a massive 120-by-80 yard pitch that had taken all of Saturday’s rain and Monday’ as well without becoming slick or muddy, the Cadets did not move fluently from defense to attack, especially late in the first half and early in the second half.

“I have really no idea why,” O’Connor said. “We missed playing with urgency. Did we play hard? Yeah. Did we play smart? Not really. And we didn’t play with urgency. We’re so much better playing to feet, playing to feet. It was just not us out there.”

Defensively, Marmion established a platform from which to attack and there were few moments where White was truly troubled in the second half. And in the late-going, the offense picked up its tempo and nearly forged a match-tying goal when Mike Gerold had a shot saved and Cory Fitzgerald sent the rebound over the crossbar.

“You can’t leave that many goals on the field and expect to win,” O’Connor said. “Playing in any kind of a game, you can’t expect to leave goals on the field and win it.”

The win marked Central’s first regional championship and the Rockets advance to play in the Belvidere Sectional.