Marian's dreams dashed

Marian Central's Austin Sierakawski tries to control the ball during the IHSA Class 2A Freeport Sectional semifinal Tuesday in Belvidere. The Hurricanes lost, 1-0. (Rob Winner – Shaw Suburban Media)

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BELVIDERE – Marian Central’s Alex Grazier was stunned.

He lay on the ground, hands over his face, in disbelief. Then, he let out a gutterral yell as he got up to listen to postgame coach talk one more time.

Marian had dreams of a state championship.

But those dreams ended with a 1-0 loss to DeKalb at Belvidere High School in a semifinal of the IHSA Class 2A Freeport Sectional. De-Kalb will face Freeport, a 1-0 winner against Sycamore in Tuesday’s first semifinal, in the sectional final Friday.

“We’re all pretty stunned as far as coaches and players,” Hurricanes coach Mike Golda said.

The ’Canes came into the match with confidence in their superior possession ability. But they left convinced the muddy field conditions did in those plans.

The ’Canes (19-6-1) had plenty of good looks, but nothing to show for them.

The best came off Ben Platta’s head with just more than 13 minutes left in the match.

The shot had velocity, was on frame and was headed away from DeKalb goalkeeper Adam Lorenz, who somehow got a hand in front of the shot to block it away.

“I thought we had three or four good header chances,” Golda said. “We put a couple on the side, and that one was right on frame and the goalie made a nice save from on the ground. It was just not our night to find the back of the net.”

The ’Canes’ undoing came in the midfield, where they struggled to possess the ball in the sloppy conditions. While DeKalb (15-6-4) went away from possession and more toward chip and charge after moving midfielder Sammy Lake to an outside forward spot, Marian didn’t have an answer.

“We’re a skilled, possession team, and these conditions did not play into our favor,” Golda said. “They were a kick-and-run team, and they played that well tonight.

“It seemed like every time we tried to play finesse, there was a missed touch or someone was slipping.”

Lake was moved to the outside to avoid Grazier, the ’Canes’ speedy sweeper. And Lake’s runs up the left side are what led to the Barbs’ goal when he left the ball in front of the net for teammate Chris Calbow.

Calbow had missed a similar shot 10 minutes earlier but hit the mark with this one with 10:40 left from point-blank range.

“[Lake’s] speed is really what started to get us loose,” DeKalb coach Brent McIntosh said. “We kind of had to get out of our game a little bit because we really weren’t doing a good job in possession and we didn’t really want to. We wanted to use our speed up top.”

Five minutes after the goal, the ’Canes pulled goalkeeper Andrew Hull and put him up front, trying to give them an offensive spark. Hull finished with seven saves.

“Andrew has played on the field for three years,” Golda said. “We were just trying to get some kind of energy.”

That didn’t work, either, as the ’Canes’ last few chances were booted away, and time expired on Marian’s season.