GLEN CARBON – One hundred minutes of soccer wasn’t enough to separate Marquette and Father McGivney Thursday evening.
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The two Catholic schools, both in the Gateway Metro Conference, were playing each other for the first of two times during the regular season, this time on the Griffins’ newly-illuminated turf field.
The conference game meant there had to be a winner, and after 80 minutes, plus two 10-minute overtime periods, the score remained 0-0, taking it to a penalty shootout.
The Griffins won the shootout 4-1, with a key save from sophomore goalkeeper Patrick Gierer to help ease the pressure in the eventual 1-0 win.
The game ended Marquette’s unbeaten streak to open the season. The Explorers are now 7-1 while the Griffins improved to 6-1-1. Both teams are now 2-1 in the GMC. McGivney lost to Althoff 2-1 back on Tuesday.
“Althoff came in and took it to us, kind of like Marquette did,” McGivney head coach Matt McVicar said. “We didn’t bend, we didn’t break, but we got out of our game, we just dumped it. All it did was cause us to get worn out and let Althoff have their way.”
The Griffins took a 1-0 lead into halftime over the Crusaders but ended up taking their first loss of the season, despite a good second-half effort according to McVicar.
“We had a little more control and composure at the end of [the Althoff game] and carried it into today,” he said. “And, if you have that patience, you’re able to stretch them and keep the ball and it takes [Marquette] out of their offense. I thought we did a very good job of being able to play our game.”
The Explorers still had their chances, and they came early as they looked like the better team in the first 15 minutes or so of Thursday’s match.
Jude Keller had his shot saved in the 4th minute, but it was a 15th-minute opportunity that nearly gave Marquette the lead.
Maicol Gonzalez managed to break free from the McGivney defense right outside the 18-yard box, taking a touch around Gierer but losing his balance in the process, causing his shot to be pushed wide right.
The game settled in for McGivney as it played its typical high-possession style of game, leading them to some offense in that latter part of the first half.
Will Rakers had a shot skim off the crossbar in the 35th minute from an ambitious half-volley attempt before Aaron Broadwater’s shot ran wide right in the 37th minute.
The Griffins were beginning to test Marquette senior goalie Will Fahnestock, but he made the saves he needed to. Through eight games now, Fahnestock has only given up a single goal in the run of play.
Perhaps McGivney’s best chance of the game came from a 52nd-minute freekick. Placed directly on the 18-yard line, Broadwater stepped up to take and rattled the crossbar.
In the 66th minute, Marquette’s Quin Copeland got on the end of an incoming freekick, but his effort too found the crossbar. The Explorers pounced on the ball, but Gierer made his best save of the night, diving down to his left to make a goal-line save.
The two overtime periods were rather tame, with no team coming up with a particularly dangerous chance, taking the game to penalties.
McGivney shot first as Broadwater stepped up and scored. Marquette’s Chris Hankins quickly equalized the shootout. Spencer Sundberg scored before Gierer came up with a huge stop on Copeland’s attempt.
Mason Holmes made it 3-1 and then Jude Keller missed the goal left, meaning that if Rakers scored, it would be over. Rakers did just that to win the shootout 4-1.
McVicar knew that the save was key during the shootout.
“I think number nine (Copeland) scores a majority of their goals if not all of them, so I think when Patty [Gierer] blocked his, it’s a psychological thing,” McVicar said.
“I think we just got lucky. If [Copeland] makes his, maybe the guy behind him does as well and it goes differently,” he continued, “but it makes a big difference when we got our keeper back there.”
Copeland typically does score a lot of goals. He’s got 12 on the season with two assists but was controlled most of the afternoon by the McGivney defense. And that’s mostly in credit to Sundberg who seemed to be man-marking Copeland or Keller most of the game.
It disrupted Marquette’s usual potent offense and threw the Explorers off their game.
“The finishing product needed to be a little bit better,” Marquette coach Brian Hoener said. “I thought we did a decent job of putting ourselves in some pretty good spots, but as I just told the boys after the game, you’ve got to make plays. Father McGivney’s such a good team, it’s just a matter of a few plays here and there to decide who gets the result and who doesn’t.”
“You’ve got to make those plays because they don’t present themselves over and over again in these types of games because the quality of the opponent is so good,” Hoener added.
These two teams will meet again on Oct. 1 on Marquette’s temporary new home field at Glazebrook Park in Godfrey. And with Marquette back down to IHSA Class 1A, it’s possible to get a third meeting in the postseason.
McVicar doesn’t mind that possibility.
“If you’re going to go to state, you’ve got to beat the best people, and I think the best teams are down here,” he said.
McGivney closes a four-game work week on Saturday at Highland with an 11:30 a.m. kickoff.
The Explorers take on rival Alton High at Public School Stadium on Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
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