Solid overall effort pushes Marmion past St. Francis

It took quite some time for Marmion's boys soccer team to finally find the back of the net, but when the Cadets found it they didn't waste anytime whatsoever.

Cadets midfielder Mike Frasca was posting up and ready to flick the ball to teammate Mick Maley when he was grabbed by defender. That entitled Frasca to a free kick with 11:27 remaining in the first half.

While St. Francis goalkeeper Ryan Suerte was slow in setting up his wall of defense, Frasca strategically opted against asking for 10 yards, and blasted a successful shot past Suerte.

"When you don't ask for 10 (yards) you don't have to wait for the whistle," Marmion coach Kevin O'Connor said. "The referee told (St. Francis) to back up because they were too close to the ball, but it was a smart play by Mike Frasca, a very intelligent player, and we caught them off guard."

Marmion added an insurance goal in the second half while its midfield and defense shut down the Spartans for 80 minutes in a 2-0 victory.

"I thought this was a good game," O'Connor said. "I thought we moved the ball well, I liked the pace of our play and I thought we defended and possessed well. The only thing we didn't do was connect enough in the final third, but I'll still take tonight's effort anytime."

Marmion (7-2-3, 5-0-0) was about as close as you can come to scoring a goal without actually scoring one on a couple of occasions. Maley blasted a shot off the crossbar in the first half and Joe Romano curved a corner kick from right-to-left off the right post in the second half. While Romano came up empty-handed on the evening, Maley took advantage of another opportunity when he scored with under 15 minutes remaining in the second half.

"(Matt) Switzer was near midfield and I took a touch and then a turn," Maley said. "I popped it over one guy and cut around another and saw a seam, burst through it and drove it low to the back post and it went to the net."

St. Francis (4-5-0, 3-2-0) had few opportunities on the evening, and perhaps saved its best chance with only 1:18 remaining when Jon Mifsud got an open look only to be denied by Marmion goalkeeper Evan Lefelstein's diving one-handed rejection.

"We were hoping that once we got our defense going that they could shut down (Maley) and (Frasca) and get more confidence to help us on the attack," St. Francis coach Kristin Keigley said. "Unfortunately it took us until the last 20 minutes to play the soccer that they normally play and you can't win a game if it takes that long to get used to playing."