Marmion reaches sectional championship

Mick Maley scored twice and added an assist and Marmion made the long trip back from Freeport on Tuesday night a happy one.

Marmion controlled its Class 2A Freeport sectional semifinal for most of the night, shutting out United Township, 3-0, to keep its season alive, as well as the coaching career of Kevin O’Connor.

“They’re a reasonably fast team with one big strong kid,” O’Connor said. “Once we went to a 4-5-1 we neutralized them and they didn’t have much going on.”

Marmion (17-6-3) switched to the 4-5-1 about 12 to 15 minutes into the match. The Cadets were not at full strength as Matthew Switzer, a key component of their possession game, was out of the lineup nursing a knee injury.

“We stayed extremely organized and played very hard,” O’Connor said. “After the initial burst I think we outworked them. We created chances and finally got through and we just played very smart.”

The Cadets took a 1-0 lead into halftime when the dynamic combination of Mick Maley and Mike Frasca connected on a restart at the 20:20 mark.

They extended the lead to 2-0 in the second half, when the two players switched roles on a corner kick with Maley serving a pass to Frasca in the 54th minute.

United Township did little offensively to threaten the Cadets in the second half and when Maley went approximately 70 yards, slicing through the defense to score on a breakaway in the 68th minute, the match was all but officially over.

“It all started with (Alex) Ruble’s play in back to Maley, and up top to Luke Elder, another senior who works incredibly hard,” O’Connor said. “They played extremely well, and Eddie Graham, outside mid, played very steady and very intelligently.”

Apparently the long bus trip didn’t have a negative effect on the Cadets.

“They came here very focused about what they needed to do,” O’Connor said. “We knew we had to keep our composure because United Township is a chippy team. We were very organized and very smart and we tried to finish the chances we created, and wanted to execute the things we talked about in practice for two days.”

Marmion advances to the Class 2A sectional where it will face either Sterling or Belvidere North at 6 p.m.