Marist defeats Shepard in OT

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:18PM

There is just something different about playoff soccer.

Marist and Shepard displayed that Friday night. The RedHawks defeated the

Astros 3-2 in overtime, winning the Class 3A Reavis Regional championship in

Burbank.

The two teams had met less than a month ago with the RedHawks (18-6-1)

coming out on top 7-0.

"Playoff soccer is a completely different animal," Marist coach Sean Maxwell

said. "We handled them pretty easily during the season, but then again so

did Reavis and Shepard beat them in the playoffs."

The first half was dominated by Marist. The RedHawks outshot Shepard 13-3,

but the scoreboard read 1-1 at the end of the half.

Matt Krakowski hit Dillon Olson in stride and he centered the ball to Jeremy

Ballard, who found the back of the net less than 10 minutes into the game

for a 1-0 RedHawks lead.

"I was just running and the ball came perfect to me and I just had to tap it

in," Ballard said.

Shepard (12-10) answered with just under eight minutes remaining in the

half. Nick Lippe scored on a rebound off a shot from Erik Ziolkowski.

In the second half, things got chippy. With 18:28 left in the game,

Shepard's Michael Scaccia pushed Olson to the ground and the two received

yellow cards.

Minutes later, Scaccia was called for a foul on Olson, which was met with

catcalls from the crowd, suggesting Olson took a dive.

Olson hit the free kick off an Astros defender and right to teammate Patrick

Hehir, who blasted the ball into the back of the net for a 2-1 lead with

just over 10 minutes remaining.

"They were yelling to me that the pool was inside and the only way you can

make them be quiet is by putting one in," Olson said. "It felt amazing. I

turned around and all the fans walked away from the bar and sat back down."

It appeared Hehir's goal would hold up, but with 17 seconds left a free kick

from Tommy Eyer bounced off Marist goalie Kyle Coleman. Luis Navarrete put

the rebound in the goal to send the game to overtime.

"(The goal) put a chip on our shoulder because this was our game from the

beginning and we should have never let that happen," Ballard said.

With just over four minutes left in overtime, Olson's free kick from 25

yards out was headed into the net by Kevin Szubrych.

"Playoff soccer. Game-winning goal in overtime. Best feeling in the world,"

Szubrych said.

Marist will meet the winner of Saturday's match between Sandburg and Stagg

in the Marian Catholic Sectional semifinals Tuesday night.

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