Cadets passing game keys 7-1 win over Marian
By Steve Nemeth
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If Wednesday’s Marmion victory could have been staged before a partisan Spanish stadium, it would have been music to coach Ricky Del Toro’s ears --- from the Ole! Ole! Ole! that could have accompanied the Cadets’ passing to seven uses of Andres Cantor’s signature GOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLL!
Marmion dominated Marian Central Catholic in the Suburban Christian Conference outing even more than the final 7-1 score would indicate.
While both teams entered the contest hoping for an encore to a previous SCC victory, the visiting Hurricanes couldn’t even be considered to be at tropical storm strength with three key players sidelined and only one reserve on the bench for coach Jim Dzialo.
Nevertheless this was Marmion’s day and it didn’t take long for the Cadets to be on their way to improving to 4-5-0 and 2-0-0 in league play while Marian Central dipped to 2-7-1 and 1-1-0.
And the major reasons behind the home team’s triumph were ball possession and passing. On one of the few occasions when Marian Central got near the Marmion goal, the Cadets worked the ball up field and reversed the ball from one side to the next by stringing together 11 consecutive passes only to have Hurricane goalie Connor Hull make a save.
That precision was at least a pleasure to Del Toro’s eyes.
“What I loved the most was that today’s success was because of what we practiced yesterday,” the first-year Marmion boss noted. “We really worked on our attack. From the very beginning we emphasized technique: possession, possession, possession; passing, passing, passing; open up the hips, move your body for better control.
“We’ve done a great job of possessing the ball through the back four to the midfield, but then it seemed like we’d get stuck when we got it to the (offensive) front,” Del Toro admitted. “That’s why we worked so hard on our attack, having constant movement, and today we got goals from seven different players.”
The Marmion onslaught began just 5:48 into the match when Eddie Graham used a stellar pass from Trevor Jones for a 1-0 lead that sparked the Cadets’ confidence and carried forward the momentum of Tuesday’s 3-0 SCC road win at Montini – a victory that ended a five-game skid.
“In several of the losses we started slow and fell behind, so it was painful to come back,” Jones said. “When I felt my defender on me, I knew there was space to find Eddie.”
“It was like their defense parted, so I just went to the gap and called for the ball, Trevor got it to me and I just made up my mind to get it in the back of the net,” Graham added. “It felt really good because we knew we wanted to get off to a fast start and that got us going.”
By the time the first half was over, Marmion boasted a 16-1 advantage in overall attempts and a 10-1 edge for shots directly on goal. Despite having nearly eight minutes trimmed from the second half via the IHSA seven-goal mercy rule, the Cadets increased those margins to 31-5 and 20-4 by the final horn.
Within 10 minutes of the opening strike, the hosts doubled their lead with Jones ball flick being just the right touch to set up teammate Conor Morton for a 17-yarder left-footed blast. Nine minutes later, co-captain Matt Switzer’s through ball was almost flicked home by Morton as it glanced off the left post.
When the Hurricanes finally countered with an attack, Marmion starting goalie Brian Hymel was able to reject a shot wide. Marian Central’s keeper was up to the test on consecutive long-ball tests from Cadet Quinn Turcich, however, the second of which led to a corner kick.
That’s when Switzer got in position for Alex Lopez’s corner kick and the veteran senior headed an eight-yarder from the left side inside the far right post for a 3-0 advantage with 9:16 left before halftime.
It was a fitting reward for Switzer who seemed literally to be everywhere on the field in helping Marmion stonewall the visitor’s attack either well in front of the Cadet goal or just beyond midfield.
“(Fellow co-captain) Luke (DeSimone) and I have wanted to get the back line organized and stronger. Now we want to work from the back up, solidify our midfield play, and then improve things up front,” Switzer said. “We always want to keep our backline together so that we’re always able to work the ball up.”
The only time in the opening 40 minutes when Marmion’s defense appeared to bend, the Hurricane offense still wasn’t able to break through. MCC’s Mike Dougherty had a cross through the Cadet goal crease that was begging for the slightest re-direct but there wasn’t a Hurricane foot to be found.
Instead of a potential for an optimistic 3-1 deficit, Marmion substitutes John Raucci and Michael Bila made it a 4-0 halftime advantage. Bila’s cross from the right side was headed home by Raucci. 
Further disheartening Marian Central was another Cadet strike just over five minutes into the second half as Turcich follow-up from two yards out following an initial keeper block on a shot by Flynn Collins. With 22:05 still to be played, Gavin Sanchez’s through ball set Collins on his way for a one-on-one which saw the junior tuck a shot past the keeper’s right but inside the left post.
Marmion’s Raucci earned an assist when a nine-yard header by Lopez was caught just inside the right post by the MCC goalie. That 7-0 lead came with 15:25 left in regulation, which reduced the match by just less than eight minutes.
Marian Central was able to avoid the shutout loss with just 18 seconds left on the clock when Cody Teubert was able to blast a 17-yarder from the left side just inside the upper right corner. Despite a valiant effort by back-up goalie John White, the Cadets couldn’t quite close the deal on what would have been their third whitewash for the year.
