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ALTON – Sunday evening was a time of celebration for Marquette Catholic's boys soccer team.
The team's players and coaches were honored at a reception held at Marquette's gym to recognize the Explorers' achievements during the just-completed season – including Saturday night's 4-3 extra-time win over Monmouth-Roseville to take the 2017 IHSA state Class 1A boys soccer title, the fifth state championship in the school's 91-year history to go with the 1980 and 1984 Class A baseball championships, the 2011 Class 1A girls soccer title and the 2012 Class 1A boys soccer championship.
“We had a mass Friday (prior to the Explorers' departure for East Peoria) and all I said to the boys, 'gentlemen – go out and make yourself proud,” said Marquette principal Mike Slaughter in remarks to the audience at the start of the celebration. “'Make your teammates proud. Make your family proud and make your school proud.' I think they did.
“And you make sure when you walk off that field that you have left everything that you have on that field', and I'm telling you last night, when they floated off that field, you could tell they were whipped; they left everything they had on that field.”
“It's been an incredible ride,” said Explorer coach Joe Burchett to the supporters in attendance before thanking his family and the Marquette athletic support staff for their contributions. “I want to thank (former MCHS coach) Jeremy Sanfilippo – we've had lots of conversations with Jeremy this week – I want to thank him for inviting me to the Marquette family.”
Burchett then thanked the parents of the Explorer players and the Alton Police and Fire departments for their escorts back into Alton Saturday night as the team was returning from East Peoria and the staff at Gordon Moore Park, where the team plays before recognizing the players for their contributions to the season.
When Burchett reached Kwame Ngwa, who scored the championship-winning goal in the 99th minute off a direct free-kick near the Monmouth goal Saturday, he said “we really relied on Kwame to be our leader in (the backfield) to keep us organized, keep our shape and him and (goalkeeper) Nick (Hemann) were great back there.
“He's a powerful striker of the ball, as we saw on Saturday; we see it in practice – he can kick it to the next county."
