Boys soccer: Carmel shoots past Marian Central
It was an unusual day for junior Matt Duffy and his Carmel Catholic soccer teammates.
First, they dealt with an hourlong lightning delay against visiting Marian Central. The match was played on grass for eight minutes and then was switched to the turf in the stadium to finish.
Duffy was pulled up from the JV level during the day and made his presence known by scoring 4 goals, all in the second half, as Carmel won 5-1 in an East Suburban Catholic Conference matchup on Wednesday.
Carmel played without a starting defender due to him receiving a red card in a loss to St. Patrick on Monday.
"I found out today when my JV coach texted me," Duffy, who has 3 goals on JV, said of his promotion. "I was nervous knowing that I was going to play with the upperclassmen, but it was fun."
A player with Duffy's offensive abilities might be just what is needed for the Corsairs (5-3-1, 2-1-1) after they lost a lot of speed up top from last year.
"We knew that he was fast," Carmel coach Ray Krawzak said. "We know at this point of the season that we're looking for speed up top and somebody that can finish. He was doing really well at the JV level so it made sense to call him up at this time. It was fun to see somebody have a great start. He was having one of those special games. It's good to see that he has so much potential moving forward."
The match was tied 1-1 at the end of the first half. In the second half, Duffy came off the bench and broke the tie by finishing a rebound in front of the goal in the 55th minute.
Duffy scored his second goal 10 minutes later on a header off a cross from Ryan Long. His third put the Corsairs up 4-1 in the 69th minute. Long again served him the ball, and Duffy rolled a low shot into the back of the net.
He capped off his scoring spree on another header, this time off a service from Michael Handel in the 75th minute.
"(The goals) were (the result of) great passes with crosses that the defenders just missed," Duffy said. "I just turned my head to put it in."
Aidan Day opened for scoring for Carmel in the 19th minute. Marian Central (1-11-1, 0-3) tied the match in the 37th minute, as Jonathan DePrey scored in front off a corner kick from Nicolas Iafigliola.
"We're getting stronger as we go," Marian Central coach Art Dixon said. "They're starting to communicate and work together better. We had some breakdowns. Carmel is a great team and they've always been a good team. The biggest problem we had was the right and left sides. We were unable to stop them."