Cadets score late to edge Mount Carmel

By Curt Herron

On some days a team plays really well and is unable to get the result that they were looking for.

And then on other days the performance isn't so good but they manage to come away with a victory.

That was pretty much the story for Marmion on Saturday when it met Mount Carmel in the Pepsi Showdown at LaGrange.

The Cadets took awhile to get going against the Caravan, as was seen by over 76 minutes of scoreless play.

But they were able to capture a 1-0 win after Sam Duffield scored with 3:15 off of an assist from Casey White.

"Mount Carmel was playing short-handed so I thought that we needed to do a better job of possessing the ball to make them chase us so that we could tire them out," Cadets coach Kevin O'Connor said.

"In the first half we didn't possess well at all and that's the very first thing that I talked about to the guys at halftime. We're a better team when we possess and we didn't have good touches today.

"When you don't have good touch, the energy and effort have to be there and that was fine. We possessed better in the second half and that's why we got deeper in their end on a more consistent basis."

Just as the Cadets (4-4) looked like they were getting ready to play some additional soccer, they ended things.

In a good display of the type of attack that Marmion wants to deploy, the ball was efficiently moved up field.

Max Rosenfelder started the sequence with a pass to Casey White, who proceeded to move forward to Sam Duffield.

The Cadet senior got free past his man and managed to collect the match's lone score with just 3:15 remaining.

"It was nice to get a good result, even though it may not have been as deserved as some of our other results," Duffield said. "But we worked hard the whole game and some times it falls for you.

"The goal was a team play in which we moved the ball forward and I got a good pass from Casey. Some times you have to just keep working in order to make your own luck.

"We've had our good games and bad games so hopefully as the year progresses we want to have more and more good games. It's good to go into our regular season schedule with a win."

In the opening half, it took nearly 15 minutes before Marmion threatened when Steve Anderson and Rosenfelder each were stopped on headers.

A short time later, Rosenfelder had a long free kick and liner both hauled in and Duffield came up empty on a header.

Mount Carmel didn't put much pressure on starting keeper Brad White, who made two saves during the final five minutes.

"We started off pretty slow and they came at us with a much higher tempo," Anderson said. "After about 20 minutes we started playing our game but still weren't playing well enough to be up at half.

"The second half was a better performance, even though it still wasn't good enough compared to how we've played before. We started connecting our passes and the goal was a perfect example of that.

"I think we've played really well so far and playing the teams that we have has helped. We can definitely compete against the bigger schools and not all schools which are our size can say that."

The Caravan put up a better battle during the second half and got off more shots against new keeper Evan Lefelstein.

After Connor Lefelstein collected a shot on goal within the first two minutes, Mount Carmel had the next few attempts.

Marmion had a pair of good chances with about 18 minutes left, beginning with White's shot shot that led to a corner.

Following the corner kick, Duffield had a shot shot try deflected which led to another corner that ended the sequence.

That's how things remained until the Cadets finally put all of the pieces of the puzzle together on Duffield's goal.

As a result of the win, Marmion went 2-1 in pool play with its lone blemish being a 2-1 loss to pool winner Morton.

"We had the lead for 27 minutes against Morton and then there was a very controversial goal," O'Connor said. "We played them toe-to-toe and in fact we outshot Morton, which is a fine team.

"I don't think the Morton game had any effect on our play today. We just weren't as sharp as we usually are. We've played hard and well before and didn't get the result so we'll take this."

Men of the match:
Steve Anderson and Alex Ruble

By Curt Herron

On a day where Marmion wasn't possessing the ball like it normally does, defense was critical.

With goals at a premium, it was important that the Cadets' back line not yield anything to Mount Carmel.

And that's just Marmion was able to accomplish as it kept the Caravan off of the scoreboard in a 1-0 win in LaGrange.

A recent addition to that unit is sophomore Alex Ruble, who joined seniors Steve Anderson and Elliot Anderson and junior Antonio Ortiz in Saturday's starting lineup.

With sophomore Mike Maley out for the match, Anderson and Ruble both had to step up their games for the Cadets.

Thanks to the fine defensive effort against a pesky Caravan squad, keepers Brad White and Evan Lefelstein combined for a shutout.

"Alex has really stepped up his play big time," Marmion coach Kevin O'Connor said. "He's a kid who wasn't getting many minutes at the start of the year but he's been a starter in the last three or four games and was extremely solid on the outside left.

"Steve is a terrific player for us on defense. We missed Mike, who was out, so Steve had to assume a little more responsibility in the middle. But all of the guys who were back there stepped in and helped out today."