Loyola's 2nd-half fire dooms Marmion
Hickey's goal, McMenamin's save give Ramblers 1-0 win
By Gary Larsen
GLENVIEW -- When Loyola keeper Jack McMenamin dove to his right and went airborne, stretching out parallel to the ground to swat a shot around the post, he made a save that loomed large in the game’s eventual outcome against visiting Marmion on Tuesday.
A second-half goal from Sean Hickey effectively gave Loyola a 1-0 win, but it was McMenamin’s diving stop that made the win possible.
“That was a great save,” Marmion coach Ricky Del Toro said.
McMenamin provided more than one highlight-reel save, however, in being named Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match.
Trailing 1-0, Marmion found attacking urgency and flirted with dangerous scoring chances throughout the second half. But McMenamin stood tall, leaving his line aggressively to cut off potential danger and staying in good position to save every shot the Cadets managed.
“It’s fun when you make a save like that, but if I don’t touch the ball it means we’re playing well, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” McMenamin said. “But any ball that’s coming to me, I just want to make sure to get my hands on it and get control of it.”
Loyola (8-1-1), ranked 22nd in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, gave coach Baer Fisher a solid day’s work throughout. The Ramblers were also dangerous in the attack, defended well, and made Marmion (2-7-0, 0-1-0) their fourth-consecutive victim.
“If you would have told me before the season that we’d be 8-1-1 after 10 games, I would have said you were crazy,” Fisher said. “We’re still very young, but they’ve bought in, and they’re still buying in. It’s been a really good start. They lacked (varsity) experience, but they’re not playing like it.”
After an evenly-played first half, the first 10 minutes after halftime belonged to Loyola. Hickey’s relentless presence up top punctuated the Ramblers’ high-octane approach, and the senior netted his seventh goal at the 50-minute mark.
“They came out with a lot of energy after halftime,” Marmion midfielder Nick Grant said. “You could see it when they huddled up. And we came out flat. We got pressed in, couldn’t clear the ball, and we just kept backing up.”
McMenamin was impressed by his team’s ability to find another gear after halftime.
“We’re doing really well. We have to keep working hard,” McMenamin said. “I can’t point to any one thing we need to work on, but that’s not to say we’re perfect because we’re not. We have stuff to work on. We just have to keep our heads down, and keep working hard.”
The teams traded attacking punches to halftime, earning four corner-kicks apiece. Hickey broke up the right side in the 14th minute and fed Nick Lew in the box, but Marmion keeper Daniel Galush saved Lew’s offering at the near post.
Marmion earned consecutive corner-kicks in the 24th minute, and McMenamin’s save came in the 33rd on a crisp shot from the Cadets’ Matt Lagman.
“The first half was pretty even, and I thought we had a few good chances, especially on corners,” Del Toro said. “Lagman took a good shot and (McMenamin) made a great stop.”
Loyola’s backline of Matt Brennan, Daniel Montaquila, Matt Salter, and Luke Phillips switched the field and found each other’s feet sharply throughout the first half.
Hickey busted loose on the right side in the 47th minute, penetrating the box on the
dribble and centering a pass that Collin Leider blasted high and wide.
Hickey scored three minutes later, and that’s when Marmion’s attack came to life.
Cadets forward Sean Miller stayed busy to the final buzzer, as Grant and Lagman helped breathe life into the Marmion attack.
“We tend to get more opportunities when we let our guys go forward when we’re down one (goal), as opposed to when we’re tied or we’re up, when we’re defending more,” Del Toro said. “It depends on what teams we’ll be playing but maybe we’ll turn our guys loose a little more.”
Grant wants to see his boys play 80 minutes the way they played after falling behind by a goal.
“It’s unfortunate that that has to be the wake-up call to get ourselves up,” Grant said. “But after that goal, we pushed, and we just need to have that energy the whole game. But we worked hard as a team, and the defense played pretty well.
“We created a lot of chances after their goal, and I should have finished at least two or three chances. (Loyola) is a very good team but I’m happy with the way we worked. If we play like that come October, we’ll be fine.”
Del Toro also applauded the effort of outside defender Quinn Gratz on Tuesday. Fisher liked the performances he got from McMenamin, forwards Hickey and Lew, and midfielder David Gripman, and applauded the Cadets for the test they provided.
“Credit to (Marmion) because they’re very organized, very well-coached, and they play to their strengths,” he said. “They’re tough to break down. And (Miller) is a handful.”
“I’m proud of our guys because they responded to what we covered at halftime. They came out firing and it was a really solid performance. As a whole, we defended well, we were patient in our attack, in our build-up play, and the play of our two forwards was really strong.”
Though technically a nonconference game, the match counted in the divisional standings for each team. Loyola moved to 1-0-0 in the Blue and Marmion fell to 0-1-0 in the Green.
Last week the Chicago Catholic League, which is divided into four, four-team divisions, decided to count games against teams in a "married" division in the standings. The Blue and Green divisions fall into that category, as do the Red and White, which features Chicagoland Soccer member St. Francis.
Starting lineups
Loyola
GK Jack McMenamin
D Matt Salter
D Matt Brennan
D Luke Phillips
M Julian Hilpusch
M Nick Lew
M Collin Leider
M David Gripman
M Christian Jimenez
M Daniel Montaquila
F Sean Hickey
Marmion
GK- Daniel Galush
D- Matt Lagman
D- Ricardo Ruiz
D- Johan Muscutt
D- Luke Salamon
MF- Quinn Gratz
MF- Anthony Zangler
MF- Nicholas Grant
MF- Tyler Laurich
F- Sean Miller
F- James Serrano
Man of the Match: Jack McMenamin, GK, Loyola
Hickey's goal, McMenamin's save give Ramblers 1-0 win
By Gary Larsen
GLENVIEW -- When Loyola keeper Jack McMenamin dove to his right and went airborne, stretching out parallel to the ground to swat a shot around the post, he made a save that loomed large in the game’s eventual outcome against visiting Marmion on Tuesday.
A second-half goal from Sean Hickey effectively gave Loyola a 1-0 win, but it was McMenamin’s diving stop that made the win possible.
“That was a great save,” Marmion coach Ricky Del Toro said.
McMenamin provided more than one highlight-reel save, however, in being named Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match.
Trailing 1-0, Marmion found attacking urgency and flirted with dangerous scoring chances throughout the second half. But McMenamin stood tall, leaving his line aggressively to cut off potential danger and staying in good position to save every shot the Cadets managed.
“It’s fun when you make a save like that, but if I don’t touch the ball it means we’re playing well, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” McMenamin said. “But any ball that’s coming to me, I just want to make sure to get my hands on it and get control of it.”
Loyola (8-1-1), ranked 22nd in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, gave coach Baer Fisher a solid day’s work throughout. The Ramblers were also dangerous in the attack, defended well, and made Marmion (2-7-0, 0-1-0) their fourth-consecutive victim.
“If you would have told me before the season that we’d be 8-1-1 after 10 games, I would have said you were crazy,” Fisher said. “We’re still very young, but they’ve bought in, and they’re still buying in. It’s been a really good start. They lacked (varsity) experience, but they’re not playing like it.”
After an evenly-played first half, the first 10 minutes after halftime belonged to Loyola. Hickey’s relentless presence up top punctuated the Ramblers’ high-octane approach, and the senior netted his seventh goal at the 50-minute mark.
“They came out with a lot of energy after halftime,” Marmion midfielder Nick Grant said. “You could see it when they huddled up. And we came out flat. We got pressed in, couldn’t clear the ball, and we just kept backing up.”
McMenamin was impressed by his team’s ability to find another gear after halftime.
“We’re doing really well. We have to keep working hard,” McMenamin said. “I can’t point to any one thing we need to work on, but that’s not to say we’re perfect because we’re not. We have stuff to work on. We just have to keep our heads down, and keep working hard.”
The teams traded attacking punches to halftime, earning four corner-kicks apiece. Hickey broke up the right side in the 14th minute and fed Nick Lew in the box, but Marmion keeper Daniel Galush saved Lew’s offering at the near post.
Marmion earned consecutive corner-kicks in the 24th minute, and McMenamin’s save came in the 33rd on a crisp shot from the Cadets’ Matt Lagman.
“The first half was pretty even, and I thought we had a few good chances, especially on corners,” Del Toro said. “Lagman took a good shot and (McMenamin) made a great stop.”
Loyola’s backline of Matt Brennan, Daniel Montaquila, Matt Salter, and Luke Phillips switched the field and found each other’s feet sharply throughout the first half.
Hickey busted loose on the right side in the 47th minute, penetrating the box on the
dribble and centering a pass that Collin Leider blasted high and wide.
Hickey scored three minutes later, and that’s when Marmion’s attack came to life.
Cadets forward Sean Miller stayed busy to the final buzzer, as Grant and Lagman helped breathe life into the Marmion attack.
“We tend to get more opportunities when we let our guys go forward when we’re down one (goal), as opposed to when we’re tied or we’re up, when we’re defending more,” Del Toro said. “It depends on what teams we’ll be playing but maybe we’ll turn our guys loose a little more.”
Grant wants to see his boys play 80 minutes the way they played after falling behind by a goal.
“It’s unfortunate that that has to be the wake-up call to get ourselves up,” Grant said. “But after that goal, we pushed, and we just need to have that energy the whole game. But we worked hard as a team, and the defense played pretty well.
“We created a lot of chances after their goal, and I should have finished at least two or three chances. (Loyola) is a very good team but I’m happy with the way we worked. If we play like that come October, we’ll be fine.”
Del Toro also applauded the effort of outside defender Quinn Gratz on Tuesday. Fisher liked the performances he got from McMenamin, forwards Hickey and Lew, and midfielder David Gripman, and applauded the Cadets for the test they provided.
“Credit to (Marmion) because they’re very organized, very well-coached, and they play to their strengths,” he said. “They’re tough to break down. And (Miller) is a handful.”
“I’m proud of our guys because they responded to what we covered at halftime. They came out firing and it was a really solid performance. As a whole, we defended well, we were patient in our attack, in our build-up play, and the play of our two forwards was really strong.”
Though technically a nonconference game, the match counted in the divisional standings for each team. Loyola moved to 1-0-0 in the Blue and Marmion fell to 0-1-0 in the Green.
Last week the Chicago Catholic League, which is divided into four, four-team divisions, decided to count games against teams in a "married" division in the standings. The Blue and Green divisions fall into that category, as do the Red and White, which features Chicagoland Soccer member St. Francis.
Starting lineups
Loyola
GK Jack McMenamin
D Matt Salter
D Matt Brennan
D Luke Phillips
M Julian Hilpusch
M Nick Lew
M Collin Leider
M David Gripman
M Christian Jimenez
M Daniel Montaquila
F Sean Hickey
Marmion
GK- Daniel Galush
D- Matt Lagman
D- Ricardo Ruiz
D- Johan Muscutt
D- Luke Salamon
MF- Quinn Gratz
MF- Anthony Zangler
MF- Nicholas Grant
MF- Tyler Laurich
F- Sean Miller
F- James Serrano
Man of the Match: Jack McMenamin, GK, Loyola
