Marmion falls one goal short of title

Joe Wehrli has become synonymous with regional championships, and because of that, there will be a rematch between his Naperville Central Redhawks and rival Naperville North on Tuesday at Neuqua Valley.

Wehrli gave Central a boost against Marmion Academy on Saturday exactly when the Redhawks needed it - just like he did against Neuqua during last year's title game.

In the first minute of the second half Saturday, Wehrli helped break a scoreless tie by drawing a critical foul in the penalty box.

As usual, junior defender Tim Zimmer stepped in for Wehrli and gave the Redhawks a 1-0 lead.

Four more goals ensued, but Central held on for the 3-2 win and its second straight regional championship.

"We started realizing during halftime this could be our last game, and as a senior, I wasn't going to let that happen," Wehrli said. "I made sure I was going to work my butt off, and everybody else did too."

Last year, Wehrli forced overtime by scoring in the 45th minute, which led to beating Neuqua in penalty kicks.

Wehrli didn't score against Marmion, but he did come close. Wehrli's touch near the 6-yard line may have trickled into the net on its own, but teammate Colin Rook took no chances and finished it for the goal and a 2-0 lead.

"He's a senior and he didn't want today to be his last game," Central coach Jay Konrad said of Wehrli. "So he did a nice job of kind of giving us a boost right out of the gates."

It didn't seem as if Central (18-3-1) would need any more offense up two goals with 25 minutes to play.

Then Marmion junior Beto Del Toro cut the lead to 2-1 with a 31-yard bomb that caromed off the upper left corner of the goal and into the back of Tyler Kelley's net.

"It's one of the best ones I've seen all year," Marmion coach Kevin O'Connor said of the goal. "He's already had a couple like those. Beto's a fine player, a very fine player."

Four minutes later, senior co-captain Byard Ebling scored a loose ball created by a Zimmer free kick. Leading 3-1 with 10 minutes to play, the Redhawks lead again seemed safe.

This time, Marmion co-captain Doug Conroy answered with a scoring header from six yards out. Co-captain Luke Friedman earned the assist with his free kick.

Then chaos ensued. With their season on the line, the Cadets (15-8-2) began expressing their displeasure with the officiating. In the final four minutes of the game, they received a total of three yellow cards, one soft red card and one hard red card.

"We take a lot of pride in how we play, and I didn't like how the last couple minutes went. That's not us," said O'Connor, whose team was charged with 14 more fouls than Central. "As frustrated as I am and disappointed in that, I'm not going to say that our kids didn't have a lot of reason to be frustrated."

Sun-Times News Group. Boys Soccer: Naperville Central Regional