Marion boys soccer keeps its season alive with substate quarterfinal win

MARION - Alex Whalen is never going to have a more wide-open net than he found Tuesday against Maquoketa.

The Marion freshman calmly nudged the ball and it trickled into the goal for the key score in the Indians' 3-0 substate quarterfinal victory.

'I was a little surprised; I tried to keep my cool, play it safe,” Whalen said. 'I put it in the side net. It was a little closer than I wanted to be.”

The open net was there because the Cardinal keeper whiffed when he tried to clear a ball by kicking it instead of picking it up.

Whalen's was the second goal and came in the 60th minute and finally allowed Marion fans to breathe comfortably.

'It was awesome. I'm glad we got it,” senior Tyler Lumbard said. 'It put away the game for us.”

The Indians (9-6) play at No. 12 North Scott (11-6) at 6 p.m. Thursday in a semifinal. Maquoketa ended its season 5-10.

'It's probably our biggest test of the year for sure,” Coach Tom Schulte said. 'But we went into DeWitt a couple weeks ago, who's fifth in the state, and we fought them to a 3-2 loss and our guys did not back down. So I fully expect us to come out harder on Thursday.”

Lumbard scored off a corner by Noah Smith in the 16th minute to give the Indians the lead.

'He laid a nice cross in and I was able to get my head on it,” Lumbard said.

The third goal in the final minute was an own goal.

Marion beat Maquoketa, 4-1, just one week ago.

'We went in showing them exactly what we had (the first game), and we thought if we play our game we can do the exact same thing this time,” Schulte said. 'That's really what happened. Our goal was to possess the ball and get it out wide. As long as we possess the ball and spread the field we're going to make them work.”