TROY – The Triad Knights hosted the Marquette Catholic High School boys soccer team in the Class 2A Regional Finals Saturday afternoon. The Explorers’ season came to a close after a hard-fought 4-2 loss to the Knights.
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Triad had the best start you could ever ask for when Wyatt Suter netted a goal just 18 seconds into the game to give the Knights a 1-0 lead.
“When you have to chase a game against a team that’s as good as Triad, it makes it very difficult,” Marquette head coach Brian Hoener said postgame.
Marquette did regroup and started playing some great soccer, putting together some good chances of their own with the wind at their backs. Their best chance of the half came in the 29th minute after a well-put-together passing play that ended with a shot on goal.
Myles Paniagua and Dre Davis each had a couple of shots toward the end of the half, but both were saved by Max Rader. Triad led 1-0 at halftime.
Starting off the second half, Marquette continued their possession. It led to a corner kick in the 50th minute. Will Fahnestock crossed the ball toward Paniagua. He went up to meet the ball and headed it straight into the goal to tie the game back up.
It gave the Explorers a ton of momentum, so much so that they scored again just two minutes later after another header found its way into the back of the net. The goal was a little controversial as there was pretty fair contact with the goalkeeper, but it stood, and Marquette took the lead out of nowhere.
Triad went full-out attack to try and get back into the game and it worked. After a bombardment of corner kicks, set pieces, and long throw-ins, the Knights went on to score three unanswered goals.
The first came from Tobey Suter in the 65th minute and the others were scored by Lance Stauffer and Porter Reynolds in the 69th minute and with 24 seconds remaining in the game.
“They make it extremely difficult on you and the back line,” Hoener said after the game. “We were under a lot of pressure in our box in the second half, due to dead balls and throw-ins and I thought, for the most part, 85 percent of the game we did a really good job handling those situations. We didn’t do a good job for about the last 15 to 20 minutes.”
With the loss, it shuts the door on the 2022 season for Marquette. They finished the season with a 17-6 record. Hoener was still proud of his team’s performance against Triad and all season long.
“Our boys play with so much heart and so much effort. Triad’s a big school, IHSA pushed us up to 2A, and I couldn’t be prouder of the way we competed. The result’s disappointing, but the effort, the way we played, the way we handled ourselves, I’m extremely proud of that.”
Triad (18-3) will now move on to play Waterloo (10-12-1) in the Class 2A Sectional Semifinals on Wednesday, October 26th at 6 p.m.
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