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Marmion reaches the Elite Eight with a 2-1 win over Wheaton Academy By Gary Larsen
Marmion is headed to a Super-Sectional game. The Cadets’ 2-1 win on Saturday over Wheaton Academy not only gave Marmion its first Sectional title in program history, it also sent the program to its first Elite Eight appearance. Marmion will play Freeport at the Barrington Class 2A Super-Sectional on Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. “It’s amazing. It’s indescribable. We knew coming into this year that we could have an impact in the postseason,” Marmion senior Sam Duffield said. “We’ve taken each game one at a time, and we just keep going.” Long-time Marmion coach O’Connor was grateful for the upcoming chance at a Final Four berth in the state finals. “The window of opportunity to get to the Sweet Sixteen or the final eight – that window doesn’t’ occur very often,” he said. “To finally get there – I’m so proud of this team, and I’m so proud of our program.” Max Rosenfelder and his magic feet were again prominent in a big postseason game. Marmion’s senior striker had two goals and an assist in Marmion’s Sectional semifinal win over Lakes, with one of those goals coming left-footed from a laughable angle. On Saturday, Rosenfelder sent a corner kick off the far post and into goal in the first half to give Marmion a 1-0 lead, just 6 minutes into the game. Due to muddy field conditions at Hampshire, Saturday’s game was moved to the artificial turf at Wheaton College. “It’s real tight in that corner and in warm-ups I was trying a bunch of different kicks,” Rosenfelder said. “Our assistant coach, Danny (Del Toro), was helping me out over there. He told me I was hitting it better (to the far side). I just took his advice, and sent it in. When Tommy Cruger was fouled just outside the side of Wheaton Academy’s penalty area, Rosenfelder teed up another free kick in the 65th minute. He sent it to the far post, where Duffield buried it off a defender to put Marmion up 2-0 in the 65th minute. “All I need to do on those is drive it on the ground, and Duff will go get it,” Rosenfelder said. The accuracy of Rosenfelder’s shots and serves has been a thing to behold in the last two games. “Max has been absolutely fantastic,” Duffield said. “He’s been amazing.” “If he can keep opening that bag of tricks, we hope it’s not empty yet,” O’Connor added. With Saturday’s win, Marmion (21-5-1) is now on a 15-game winning streak. The Cadets last lost on September 21 to Wheaton Academy, a 5-4 affair that gave the Warriors the Suburban Christian Conference title. “Losing to them in the conference was absolutely crushing,” Duffield said. “There can’t be a better finish than to beat them in a sectional final. To come back and get the win was absolutely fantastic.” “We had to play East Aurora and we knew we had to beat them to get the second seed. Every game mattered, and every game helped us get our seed.” Wheaton Academy’s Tim Daniels is one of the best attacking players in Illinois, and Marmion knew it needed to slow him down in Saturday’s rematch. Daniels is a big, strong, and talented player who has posted more than 30 goals this season. But you’d be hard-pressed to find any high school player that can body up with the 6-foot-2 Duffield. Duffield is also a skilled, smart soccer player, and he applied all of those qualities towards slowing down Daniels. “We thought that athletically, I could stick with him,” Duffield said. “They moved him wide, so we did end up making them change their game a little bit.” “I thought Sam was magnificent all over the field, and he really neutralized Daniels as well as I’ve seen anybody do it this year,” O’Connor said. “Since we won our first game of the sectional our focus in practice has been on trying to do our best to negate Daniels and (Brandon) VanderVeen.” “Duff was absolutely outstanding today. I have always valued our versatility, and Duff played a couple different spots, (Mike) Maley played a couple different spots, and we played (Alex) Ruble and (Sam) Soliz in a couple different spots tonight.” With a 2-0 lead, second-seeded Marmion had no illusions that top-seeded Wheaton Academy (17-5-2) and its proud program was ready to step aside. The Warriors cut the lead in half on a corner kick in the 70th minute, with VanderVeen serving and Quinn Gorski finishing at the far post.
“Our defense held firm. It was organized chaos back there,” Rosenfelder said. “But they pulled it off.” Next up for Marmion is Freeport, a team the Cadets faced at a summer tournament in Iowa. Freeport was a 1-0 victor in that game, but that was a lifetime ago for both soccer teams. The Cadets also played defending state champion Peoria Notre Dame at the same summer tournament, and should Marmion get past Freeport at Barrington on Tuesday, Notre Dame could be waiting in a state quarterfinal game. “We’re looking forward to playing (Freeport), and it’s just great to have the opportunity,” Duffield said. “Freeport has a very good defense, and a 6-foot-7 keeper that is very good,” O’Connor said. “It’s going to be very difficult to get goal past him, but if anybody can I think this team can.”
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Marmion's 2009 Schedule
Postseason play
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When it was over, Kevin O’Connor’s feet left the ground and when he landed, he tore out onto the field like a kid let out of school for the summer.
The final ten minutes was pure mayhem in Marmion’s defensive third, but defenders Steve Anderson, Mike Maley and company led the charge in repelling the attacking horde of Warriors, and goalkeeper Bradley White made a pair of saves near the post on shots by Daniels and VanderVeen.