You can sometimes get what you want

Marmion carries 14-match win streak into sectional final

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October 30, 2009

After losing to Wheaton Academy 14 matches ago, Marmion's soccer team wanted nothing more than to see the Warriors again in a sectional championship match.

The Cadets got their wish, as the two top seeds meet at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Class 2A Hampshire Sectional final. And they admit that in the back of their minds, they were hoping for this chance.

"I think we have the whole season," Marmion senior Max Rosenfelder said. "It showed against Johnsburg (in the regional final). We went down 1-0 and that got us back into gear."

Coach Kevin O'Connor lauded his team's one-game-at-a-time approach heading into Wednesday's 4-3 win over Lakes to set up the big rematch. Despite the fact the Cadets fell behind in each of the last two matches, they came back and won.

The results since losing to Wheaton Academy don't lie. The Cadets have won 14 straight since that loss, with the thought of a rematch driving them through the schedule.

Marmion has had those 14 matches to dwell on what went wrong in the first matchup with the Warriors. The game was tied until Wheaton Academy scored the winning goal with 1:02 left on a cold, windy day. But leading up to that goal, the Cadets made plenty of mistakes.

The Warriors' first two goals came off of throw-ins. The third one came when Marmion punched in its own goal. Realistically, Wheaton Academy's final goal could have been to make the final margin closer, not actually win the game.

"Those are the kind of mistakes where if you eliminate them, you take away opportunities for your opponent," Marmion coach Kevin O'Connor said. "Wheaton Academy is such an opportunistic team. If you make a mistake against a team like that, they cash it in. They cashed it in against us."

O'Connor noted that the Warriors have made some changes to their lineup in the time since the Cadets faced them. For one, senior captain Brandon Vander Veen has moved to forward and become an offensive force. Junior Timothy Daniels now mans the critical center midfield slot.

"I think Wheaton Academy is playing better now than when we played them," O'Connor said. "They made a couple of switches. Vander Veen is extremely dangerous. Daniels is as good a player as I've seen this year."

Rosenfelder set up this match with his spectacular goal in the final two minutes to give the Cadets the win over Lakes. The Cadets were down 2-0 early and 3-2 midway through the second half but still came back -- just like against Johnsburg, when they were down 1-0 and rallied.

"Going down 2-0 to a good team like that, we needed the fire to come back," Rosenfelder said. "It shows on our team that we have heart. We're coming."

Marmion and Wheaton Academy can't know each other much better than they already do. So the team that minimizes mistakes and takes advantage of the other team's miscues might very well be the team headed to Barrington for supersectional play next week.

"It's got to be 80 minutes of urgency on both teams' part, because it's all on the line," O'Connor said. "We just have to keep playing aggressive, technical soccer because I think that's our strength." BOYS SOCCER