Boys Soccer: Marmion's title run ends in state semis

Updated: November 4, 2011 7:54PM

The sun shined on Marmion Friday, but fortune did not.

Mike Frasca scored his 42nd goal of the season but it wasn’t enough as the Cadets lost 2-1 to Chatham Glenwood at the Class 2A semifinals at Lincoln-Way North.

Glenwood will be seeking its second state championship when it plays Mather in Saturday’s title match. Marmion, which is playing in the state finals for the first time, faces 2010 champion Peoria Notre Dame in the third place match.

“We set our goal at the beginning of the season to come to state,” Frasca said. “We accomplished it and this is just the extra benefit of that. Of course it’s going to be sad when we go out and now unfortunately we have to play for third or fourth place.”

Frasca used the word “unfortunately” frequently in post-match interviews. It was an apt description of Marmion’s fate in a match it could have won.

The Cadets (19-7-3) frequently put pressure on the Titans (17-5-2), especially in the second half, but mustered only three shots, all by Frasca, who scored on the first one to tie the game at 1-1 with 13:29 left in the first half.

“Of course it’s probably going to be one of the biggest goals of my high school career, coming at one of the biggest times that we needed it,” Frasca said. “We needed a goal at that time and luckily the ball popped out to me and I finished it and it just felt great. I was ecstatic and our guys were happy.

“We tried to create that energy to try to get another one, but unfortunately we couldn’t. But I’m proud of [his teammates], I’m honored to play with them and I look forward to the third/fourth place game.”

Glenwood scored both goals as a result of set pieces. Freshman Brock Tober tallied the first at the 24:47 mark of the first half off a Connor Carnduff assist and Jordan Fields headed home the game-winner with 32:50 left in the second half off a throw-in from Andrew Walters after the Cadets kicked the ball out of bounds.

“On the game-winning goal, we turned the ball over deep in our end when there was no pressure on us,” Marmion coach Kevin O’Connor said. “It was just a sloppy ball that they turned into a game-winning goal.

“We had to win in the little details if we were going to be successful and the details got away from us today. As a result, we got the result that we probably deserved.”

O’Connor, who will retire after Saturday’s match, ending a 20-year career that includes 302 wins, was not pleased with the officials, who called 22 fouls on Marmion and six on Glenwood. The Cadets received five yellow cards and a red card, which was given to senior Luke Elder with 7:32 remaining for making an obscene gesture to the referee after no foul was called when Frasca had his legs taken out from under him on a play in the Titans box.

But Frasca and O’Connor agreed that Marmion did not play its best game and that’s what disappointed Frasca the most.

“We should have tried to build the attack a little bit more,” Frasca said. “At the end we were putting a lot of pressure on them and unfortunately we couldn’t find the back of the net. We came close twice and unfortunately it did not go our way.

“We wanted to come out here and get a win so we can play in the finals, send Coach off with a state championship. Unfortunately, it didn’t come out that way.”

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