Hot Marmion cooks Rice
Cadets roll to 4th-straight win, defense collects 9th shutout
By Matt Le Cren
AURORA – Marmion is playing so well that not even the absence of two starters could slow down the Cadets on Tuesday night.
Forward Nick Grant and midfielder Tim Wheeler sat out with minor leg injuries, but their replacements, Nic Calabria and Ricky Ruiz, combined to score three goals as Marmion rolled past Brother Rice 4-0 in Chicago Catholic League action at Fichtel Field.
The Cadets (8-5-3, 3-2-1) won their fourth-straight game and have triumphed in six-of-their-last-seven outings. Each win has come via shutout.
“The team is rolling, and it’s nice to see,” Marmion coach Ricky Del Toro said. “It feels good.
“We’re all very comfortable right now. From the beginning of the season to the middle, I’m yelling a lot and now, there’s not much. There’s little things to tweak here and there, but guys are stepping up big, like Nic Calabria today.”
Calabria filled in for Grant and tripled his goal total to three by scoring the first two of Marmion’s four second half goals. Both came on assists from fellow junior Sean Miller.
Miller and Calabria, along with Robert Quintana,, Dolan Hunt and Quinn Turcich, peppered the Brother Rice net with 11 shots in the first half but had nothing to show for it as goalkeeper Matt Kosiewicz came up with six-of-his-seven saves, including a trio of impressive diving stops, to keep the Crusaders (7-9-1, 3-3) even through 40 minutes.
But with the knowledge that their defense was having another strong game, the Cadets didn’t panic and broke the ice on their first shot after intermission.
Miller flicked a corner kick from Hunt toward the front of the goal to Calabria, whose short shot went off the hands of Kosiewicz and in with 34 minutes to go.
Thirteen minutes later, Miller again found Calabria, this time with a short cross to the left post for a six-yard finish and a 2-0 lead.
“You’ve just got to keep going at the ball (when the goalie is playing well),” Calabria said. “The key is just flicking it, and then we got a couple scratch goals.”
Which is exactly what Miller did.
“I was just trying to flick it on,” Miller said. “Nic was there and finished both of them.
“You get one, and you get another one. You keep piling them on.”
Indeed, the Cadets were even more dominant in the second half than in the first, keeping the ball in Brother Rice’s end 90 percent of the time.
Marmion increased the lead to 3-0 when Ruiz scored off a feed from Quintana at the 12:57 mark and Turcich finished the scoring on a penalty kick with 10:44 left.
“(Patience) is what we talked about at half, keep the pressure on their backs, find the gaps, filter a ball through,” Del Toro said. “And with Sean, he’a striker. He plays really well with his back to goal, and he likes to feed it off, but he needs to be a little bit more selfish.
“I want him to be more selfish. I want him to take guys on to find the shots. Right now he’s very comfortable passing.
“We want him to start attacking more, being a little bit more aggressive and score goals himself. But he’s doing well; he’s a heckuva team player.”
As they demonstrated by their play without Grant and Wheeler, who are expected back for Thursday’s game against St. Rita, the Cadets are playing sound team soccer. The defense, led by Joe Duffield, Brian Miller and Benjamin Garcia, has been solid all year, now the offense is starting to click.
“We’re getting more through balls,” Sean Miller said. “Our set pieces are starting to work. We’re starting to jell a little bit at the right time.”
Calabria said the good defense plays a big role in that.
“It keeps the confidence up,” Calabria said. “There’s not a lot of pressure to score. We know if we get one, most times we’re either going to win or tie.”
Indeed, the Cadets have lost only three times when they have scored and now have nine shutouts.
This despite missing senior goalkeeper Matt Fletcher following knee surgery. Fletcher made his season debut against the Crusaders, replacing junior Danny Galush with 7:40 left in the second half.
“Fletcher said he was feeling really good in practice yesterday, and he said he was feeling really good today,” Del Toro said. “We’ve got to give him a taste, the earlier the better, so he can get the confidence level up."
Galush, who made four saves against Brother Rice, may be headed to the bench but Del Toro appreciates his surprisingly strong play this season.
“We’ve got to see from here on out,” Del Toro said. “Once (Fletcher) is 100 percent, we go with him.
“Danny’s been awesome, very consistent for us. He’s a heckuva a goalkeeper, so now we have two.”
Starting lineups
Brother Rice
G Matt Kosiewicz
D Damian Ovalle
D Eddie Velez
D Dylan Keaty
D Michael Tinley
M Quinn Brosnahan
M Jesus Barajas
M Oscar Garcia
M Trevor Piper
F Carlos Gonzalez
F Jacob Marquez
Marmion
G Danny Galush
D Benjamin Garcia
D Brian Miller
D Joe Duffield
M Quinn Turcich
M Dolan Hunt
M Ricky Ruiz
M Johan Muscutt
F Sean Miller
F Quinn Gratz
F Nic Calabria
Man of the Match – Nic Calabria, F, Marmion
Cadets roll to 4th-straight win, defense collects 9th shutout
By Matt Le Cren
AURORA – Marmion is playing so well that not even the absence of two starters could slow down the Cadets on Tuesday night.
Forward Nick Grant and midfielder Tim Wheeler sat out with minor leg injuries, but their replacements, Nic Calabria and Ricky Ruiz, combined to score three goals as Marmion rolled past Brother Rice 4-0 in Chicago Catholic League action at Fichtel Field.
The Cadets (8-5-3, 3-2-1) won their fourth-straight game and have triumphed in six-of-their-last-seven outings. Each win has come via shutout.
“The team is rolling, and it’s nice to see,” Marmion coach Ricky Del Toro said. “It feels good.
“We’re all very comfortable right now. From the beginning of the season to the middle, I’m yelling a lot and now, there’s not much. There’s little things to tweak here and there, but guys are stepping up big, like Nic Calabria today.”
Calabria filled in for Grant and tripled his goal total to three by scoring the first two of Marmion’s four second half goals. Both came on assists from fellow junior Sean Miller.
Miller and Calabria, along with Robert Quintana,, Dolan Hunt and Quinn Turcich, peppered the Brother Rice net with 11 shots in the first half but had nothing to show for it as goalkeeper Matt Kosiewicz came up with six-of-his-seven saves, including a trio of impressive diving stops, to keep the Crusaders (7-9-1, 3-3) even through 40 minutes.
But with the knowledge that their defense was having another strong game, the Cadets didn’t panic and broke the ice on their first shot after intermission.
Miller flicked a corner kick from Hunt toward the front of the goal to Calabria, whose short shot went off the hands of Kosiewicz and in with 34 minutes to go.
Thirteen minutes later, Miller again found Calabria, this time with a short cross to the left post for a six-yard finish and a 2-0 lead.
“You’ve just got to keep going at the ball (when the goalie is playing well),” Calabria said. “The key is just flicking it, and then we got a couple scratch goals.”
Which is exactly what Miller did.
“I was just trying to flick it on,” Miller said. “Nic was there and finished both of them.
“You get one, and you get another one. You keep piling them on.”
Indeed, the Cadets were even more dominant in the second half than in the first, keeping the ball in Brother Rice’s end 90 percent of the time.
Marmion increased the lead to 3-0 when Ruiz scored off a feed from Quintana at the 12:57 mark and Turcich finished the scoring on a penalty kick with 10:44 left.
“(Patience) is what we talked about at half, keep the pressure on their backs, find the gaps, filter a ball through,” Del Toro said. “And with Sean, he’a striker. He plays really well with his back to goal, and he likes to feed it off, but he needs to be a little bit more selfish.
“I want him to be more selfish. I want him to take guys on to find the shots. Right now he’s very comfortable passing.
“We want him to start attacking more, being a little bit more aggressive and score goals himself. But he’s doing well; he’s a heckuva team player.”
As they demonstrated by their play without Grant and Wheeler, who are expected back for Thursday’s game against St. Rita, the Cadets are playing sound team soccer. The defense, led by Joe Duffield, Brian Miller and Benjamin Garcia, has been solid all year, now the offense is starting to click.
“We’re getting more through balls,” Sean Miller said. “Our set pieces are starting to work. We’re starting to jell a little bit at the right time.”
Calabria said the good defense plays a big role in that.
“It keeps the confidence up,” Calabria said. “There’s not a lot of pressure to score. We know if we get one, most times we’re either going to win or tie.”
Indeed, the Cadets have lost only three times when they have scored and now have nine shutouts.
This despite missing senior goalkeeper Matt Fletcher following knee surgery. Fletcher made his season debut against the Crusaders, replacing junior Danny Galush with 7:40 left in the second half.
“Fletcher said he was feeling really good in practice yesterday, and he said he was feeling really good today,” Del Toro said. “We’ve got to give him a taste, the earlier the better, so he can get the confidence level up."
Galush, who made four saves against Brother Rice, may be headed to the bench but Del Toro appreciates his surprisingly strong play this season.
“We’ve got to see from here on out,” Del Toro said. “Once (Fletcher) is 100 percent, we go with him.
“Danny’s been awesome, very consistent for us. He’s a heckuva a goalkeeper, so now we have two.”
Starting lineups
Brother Rice
G Matt Kosiewicz
D Damian Ovalle
D Eddie Velez
D Dylan Keaty
D Michael Tinley
M Quinn Brosnahan
M Jesus Barajas
M Oscar Garcia
M Trevor Piper
F Carlos Gonzalez
F Jacob Marquez
Marmion
G Danny Galush
D Benjamin Garcia
D Brian Miller
D Joe Duffield
M Quinn Turcich
M Dolan Hunt
M Ricky Ruiz
M Johan Muscutt
F Sean Miller
F Quinn Gratz
F Nic Calabria
Man of the Match – Nic Calabria, F, Marmion
