Boys soccer: Benet places third at state

It cannot be easy to recover from a tough loss in the state semifinals and then have to play less than 24 hours later.

Benet made it look easy.

While the Redwings fell short of winning a boys soccer state title, they rebounded from a difficult loss in Friday's Class 2A semifinals to beat up on Jacksonville 3-0 Saturday and capture third place.

"We talked about pride and how we want to leave the field, especially for the seniors in their last game, we want to play good soccer," Benet coach Sean Wesley said. "I think at times during this tournament we didn't, and I think that was the No. 1 goal, play together, play good soccer and see what the result would be."

The Redwings (21-1-2) also were playing for senior Bennett Curtis, who had solidified their back line all season. Curtis suffered a lower body injury initially against Fenton in a sectional final. It worsened in the supersectional and then he fully broke his foot in the first half of Friday's 1-0 loss to Latin.

While he didn't play and was forced to move around on crutches, Curtis wore a big smile when he hoisted the third-place hardware.

"I could not be more proud of my guys and just the way they rallied together," he said. "They came out (Saturday) with the mindset that we were going to end the season on a win, we were going to end it on a high note, and that's exactly what we did."

Benet was making only its second appearance in the state tournament.

"This obviously has been a dream season, but (Friday night) left a sour taste in our mouth," Wesley said. "But at the same time, we lost two games the entire year and we did that against the schedule we play. These tournaments are so brutal and the game of soccer is so hard. The kids fought to get here and played so hard. I can't ask for anything more than that."

The Redwings wasted little time Saturday as senior Charlie Kane continued his strong play at state with a goal in the third minute.

Kane also got involved in Benet's second goal, assisting senior Ben Kelly early in the second half.

"I'm very happy," Kelly said. "Even though we didn't go as far as we wanted we still put 100 percent into this game because we wanted everything we could get. Everyone put everything on the field and that gave us the desirable result."

Junior Ryan Tomecek scored in the game's final 10 minutes minute to widen Benet's lead.

It was seemingly fitting that the Redwings would still be able to blank a team like Jacksonville even without Curtis on the field. Jacksonville had only been held scoreless once this season.

"It was hard playing without (Curtis) in the back, but a couple of my teammates, especially Tony Hopp and Nick Renfro, stepped up and the whole defense kind of came together," Kane said. "We were able to end the season with a win and that doesn't happen very often."