Marmion gets battle-tested at Barrington

By Gary Larsen

Marmion’s Sam Duffield limped away from the field and towards the team bus after his squad’s loss to WWSouth on Thursday, the third straight loss for the Cadets in Barrington tournament play.

Don’t think for a minute that Marmion won’t rebound.

The Class 2A Cadets fell to a trio of Class 3A state powers in Lake Zurich, Rockford-Boylan, and the Tigers but they showed throughout Thursday’s game that Marmion can possess and play soccer with the best of them.

“In the first half they must have had seventy percent of the possession,” said Tigers coach Guy Callipari. “It was fortunate for us that we got into striking range early.”

The Tigers led 1-0 at halftime on a free kick goal by Drew Bellmer. Not long after Bellmer’s goal, Marmion’s Max Rosenfelder broke up the right side and fired just high of net. Teammate Mike Frasca sent in a hard-hit shot fielded cleanly by Tigers’ keeper Christian Enriquez before the break.

Connor Lefelstein tied the game with a goal at the far post early in the second half, but Marmion didn’t score again while WWSouth finished a cross and another set piece play before the final buzzer.

“I think it’s a little bit about composure in the final third,” Duffield said. “Our shots haven’t been falling, we had a goal called back because we were offside – we’re putting pressure on. We’re just having a little bit of trouble getting the rest of our team up to the final third.

“Besides that, I’m really happy with the possession we had today. It’s before our season, it’s before conference, and these are the games we want to use to figure our team out.”

Marmion coach Kevin O’Connor was pleased with the way his boys moved the ball around the park, and the veteran coach sees the value in facing top competition early each season.

“I told the guys on the bus on the way up here that we can’t simulate this kind of competition in practice,” O’Connor said. “It gets us out of our comfort zone and it forces us to make a choice – either make excuses or find remedies.”

“I thought we played well today. We just made a few critical mistakes. And to me it’s a progression – we were better against Lake Zurich than we were against Boylan, and we were certainly better tonight than we were against Zurich.”

There is a pair of Cadets that has stood out thus far in the season.

“I think (Mike) Maley and (Steve) Anderson played very well in back,” O’Connor said.
“They have been outstanding for us.”

“And Tommy Cruger is playing on a bad leg but I thought he played very well today.”

2009 Schedule