Boys soccer: Grant helps Marmion blank Huntley
Nick Grant decided it was time to take over and give the Marmion Cadets a quality road win.
Grant's 2 goals in the final 5:11 lifted Marmion to a 2-0 win over host Huntley in non conference boys soccer action Saturday.
The Marmion junior's first tally of the contest came on a blast from 30 yards out with 5:11 remaining in the contest.
Grant's second goal came off a perfect touch pass from Sean Miller with 12.9 seconds left to give Marmion (4-4-3) a 2-goal cushion late in the contest.
"On the first goal I was able to create some great space and get a great shot off," said Grant. "I felt the ball was going in the net when it left my foot. This was a great win against a very good Huntley team."
Marmion coach Ricky Deltoro has depended on Grant to make the big play over the last 2 years.
"Over the last two years, Nick has scored so many big goals," said Deltoro. "He got the big goal late with a great individual effort then scored the insurance goal."
The Marmion coach was happy with the effort of his Cadets.
"This was big boy soccer and we fought with great energy," said Deltoro, "It was a good win on the road for us against a quality team."
Deltoro was also happy with the play of third string goalie Dave Chiesa, who collected 4 saves in the game.
"We had a goalie out with a red card and a goalie out for the season with an MCL injury," said Deltoro. "Dave came out and played great when we really needed him. He made some great saves."
Marmion outshot Huntley 7-6 in the game. The Red Raiders (9-4-1) had 2 goals, 1 each by Andy Meyer and Aryon Shariati disallowed because of offside calls. Andrew Fulcer registered 4 saves for the Red Raiders.
"Marmion took us out of our game from the beginning to the end," said Huntley coach Kris Grabner. "They won most of the 50-50 balls the whole game and they possessed and anticipated the ball better than we did. We had some back line mistakes that were really costly. Marmion is a real nice team and they really played hard. Their goalie is a nice player and made some great saves."