[A reproduction of my story that in Chicagoland Soccer website: https://www.chicagolandsoccer.org/news_article/show/1368567]
CHICAGO — DePaul survived a late charge from Nazareth to win 2-1 in a Chicago Catholic League cross-over match and their final game of the regular-season.
Rams’ senior forward Max Kerber got on a corner kick that came over scrum in front of the goal and found a spot inside the near post to score the game-winner in the 71st minute.
DePaul (8-7-0) opened the scoring late in the first half after controlling possession for most of the first half. Rams senior midfielder Bennett Herrmanns scored from in front of the goal after a Leo Parra assist with 6:34 left in the half. The game was by no means over at that point.
The Roadrunners (3-14-1, 2-4-1) dialed up the pressure to break the Rams control of possession.
“Credit to Nazareth,” said DePaul head coach Kyle Kreider. "They adjusted. They started to leave more guys forward. They left two high consistently. I think it was no. 8 [senior midfielder Michael Duffy] that was a problem for us. He’s big. He’s physical. He’s really fast."
The tale of two halves saw the Rams get the better of the possession game in the first half. Not so much in the second half. Nazareth pushed the ball deep into the DePaul end consistently.
“We have been trying to really hammer the possession game. Knocking the ball around and moving it around,” said Nazareth head coach Roberto Cianci. “This last week or two we have really come into our own. We are just playing. That was the idea.
Just playing our brand of soccer and making them chase it. We did a darn good job of it today.”
DePaul could only withstand the pressure for so long. At the end of the 63rd minute, Nazareth senior striker Giovanni Cianci, the coach’s son, scored from in front of the goal. His chance came after Michael Duffy's shot was blocked.
DePaul's focus might have aided Nazareth's second half turnaround.
“We got a little too ahead of ourselves,” Kerber said of the Rams’ defensive woes in the second half. "We committed too much on trying to get a goal when we needed to focus more on having enough defenders in the back. So they took advantage of putting enough attackers on our defenders, and they got a goal from it.”
From then on, both teams drove back-and-forth deep into each other’s ends and produced multiple corner kicks testing the defenders.
It was the Rams who would capitalize. With 9:20 to play, DePaul had a corner kick that sailed over the box. Rams’ senior Max Kerber, a Roscoe Village resident, fielded the ball and launched a shot.
“I noticed that they had been marking a lot. They had been leaving the back posts open. I just saw it. It was a good ball and I just went back post with one,” Kerber said.
“I just tried to put it (into the crowd in front of the goal), maybe someone would get a head on it. Lucky enough, it just found its way to the back of the net.”
Roberto Solis assisted Kerber’s second goal of the year.
The late strike produced no quit in Nazareth. With under four minutes to play, the Roadrunners continued attacking with increased urgency. Striker Cianci eluded two Rams defenders and fielded a long pass just outside the box with a defender all over him.
“I had [an] opportunity. It was right in front of me. I picked my head up. I saw the keeper coming down,” Cianci said about the potential game-tying chance against DePaul goalie Thomas Phillips. "I went to chip it. Tried to put it over his head. He just got his hands on top of it."
DePaul head coach Kyle Kreider pointed out a solid effort from first half goal-scorer and senior Bennett Herrmanns.
“I thought in the first half [Bennett] made a difference for us. He puts his body on the line. He is always going to fly into his tackles and his challenges. He is a very physical player,” Kreider said.
“We know that he can withstand a lot. He was also getting the ball on the ground, moving it really well. I thought that Bennett was someone who really stepped up. He showed up on the score sheet in the first half. He was doing everything else — kind of the dirty work.”
Despite the loss, coach Cianci was pleased with the Nazareth effort.
“We put good minutes together. We had a couple ugly moments there. Especially in the first half, there was about two minutes when it was ugly on us. We just needed to get readjusted a bit,” he said.
“I thought the boys played tremendous. That’s a 3A school (1,290 students, multiplied). We are barely AA (based on 796-student enrollment). We are playing right at the right moment. Let’s put it that way. That has been our season. It’s been 2-1 games all season. By the good grace of God, it’s going to have turn around. Hopefully it starts in the playoffs.”
DePaul, which finished with a 3-4-0 mark in the Chicago Catholic League White Division, will train up to the playoffs.
The 11th-seed has a hard road ahead of it. The Rams open against Loyola on Oct. 19 in the St. Patrick Regional. The Ramblers defeated DePaul 2-0 on Sept. 29. The third-seeded host likely awaits the winner.
Seventeenth-seeded Nazareth plays at no. 16-seed Soto in an Argo Regional quarterfinal Friday. The winner meets top-seeded Juarez.
Starting lineups
DePaul
GK: Thomas Phillips
D: Olin Yee
D: Kieran Madden
D: Riley Lim
D: Dylan Quintero
MF: Leo Parra
MF: Federick Koning
MF: Max Galindo
MF: Bennett Herrmanns
F: Charlie Reinhart
F: Elias Harrison
Nazareth
GK: Owen Paquet
D: Mathew Schaffer
D: Ian Sloan
D: Brody Prempas
MF: Cooper Stasys
MF: Nathan Barrera
MF: Michael Duffy
MF: Liam Remedi
F: Bradley Aulinskis
F: Andrew MacLean
S: Giovanni Cianci
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Bennett Herrmanns, sr., MF, DePaul
Scoring summary
First half
DP: Bennett Herrmanns (Leo Parra), 34'
Second half
N: Giovanni Cianci (unassisted), 63'
DP: Max Kerber (Roberto Solis), 71'
DePaul Prep’s goalkeeper Thomas Phillips makes a brilliant save on Nazareth’s Giovanni Cianci’s attempt to tie the game late.