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BETHALTO - Even before a minute was played, the Marquette Catholic Explorers displayed how dominating they can be.
Midfielder, Aaron Boulch found the back of the before 20 seconds had elapsed and the Explorers were off and would keep it that way all game long.
Marquette, the No. 1 seed in the IHSA Class 2A Bethalto Regional, scored all their goals against the host Civic Memorial Eagles in a 7-0 regional semifinal victory on Wednesday afternoon.
“It went about the way we hoped it would go,” Marquette head coach Joe Burchett said. “If we play hard and fast then they’ll struggle to deal with us because we’re six attacking.”
The Explorers improve to 16-2-4 and will meet the Columbia Eagles in the regional championship, who defeated Jerseyville 3-1 in the preceding game last night.
Civic Memorial ends their season at 10-16.
Marquette, who return the core of their team from last years reigning Class 1A state championship squad, was well aware that they couldn’t look ahead and Burchett reminded them of that beforehand.
“We practiced good yesterday. Even though it was an opponent I’d thought we’d [beat], I talked about not neglecting it. We still had to come out and play. You never know what could happen,” Burchett said. “Last year’s run we talked about each game is a step forward, and this year this is step No. 1. Let’s don’t neglect our No. 1 step.”
Marquette came out on fire and scored four goals in just over ten minutes of the first half. Standout attackers, Chris Hartrich and Stephen, grabbed two goals apiece, while Boulch, Trenton Dietiker, and Ben Moehn got on the scoresheet all in the first half.
Burchett was pleased to see a high variety of players were finding the back of the net, let alone in a playoff format.
“That’s always a positive,” Burchett said. “It wasn’t just Chris and Stephen today. We attacked them wave after wave after wave, and that’s hard to defend the whole game. Lots of boys got on the scoresheet today.”
The Explorers are scheduled to kickoff against the 19-3-3 Eagles at 11 a.m. this Saturday at Bethalto Sports Complex. This will be a much-anticipated third matchup between the two schools. Marquette shutout Columbia 1-0 in the CYC tournament and last week the Eagles got revenge in a 3-2 come-from-behind victory.
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