OMAHA — For Omaha Marian, the emotions Monday night were a mix of revenge and bragging.
The Crusaders, ranked No. 2 in Class A, got two first-half goals from senior Anna Bragg and enough points after halftime to defeat No. 1 Class B Gretna East by three in the Metro Conference girls soccer tournament finals. I won with 1.
Marian coach Teresa DeGeorge called the win, which was the program's first Metro honors since 2017, “awesome.”
Sophomore Paige Miller put the Crusaders ahead with a goal in the 14th minute. Bragg added another point less than four minutes later, floating a centering ball from around 20 yards out from the right touchline that curled into the net over the back post.
“It was a perfect cross and I was like, 'Oh, wait, it's the back of the net,'” Bragg said.
Others are also reading…
The Creighton rookie scored his second goal just before intermission, hitting a shot back during a run to the right for his team-leading 16th of the season.
“It was definitely our strategy to bring the energy in the first five minutes,” Bragg said. “We had to show them that we were here and that we could dominate.”
Marian lost in each of the last two Metro Championships to Gretna, which was split into two teams this season.
DeGeorge and Bragg acknowledged there will be some reward, even if the opposing Gretna team is a different color.
“I told the girls this is like a Class A and Class B state championship,” DeGeorge said, referring to East's status as the No. 1 Class B state championship, adding, “We are going to win the I had to show what I had.”
Toughness was what the Crusaders had on Monday night.
“I think we frustrated them in the first half,” DeGeorge said. “We shut them down offensively and then we started attacking. Every time we scored, we got more aggressive in the first half. That was our strategy and they executed it. Ta.”
Gretna East got one back in the 55th minute when Carly Williams hit a shot from 30 yards out. The Griffins, who defeated No. 3 Gretna in the semifinals on Saturday, got even closer with 11 minutes left, but a Marian defender narrowly cleared the ball at the line to maintain a two-point lead.
The Crusaders had a 10-3 corner kick advantage and outscored Gretna East 17-9 on the night.
“I thought we did great in the first half,” DeGeorge said. “I thought we were a little disappointed in the second half. We need to work on playing our best for 80 minutes this week.”
He will be the center of attention for the Crusaders, who have not played a game for 10 days.
“I like it, but I don't like it,” DeGeorge said of his team's play. “We're not there yet. They're great, I want to be great. We still have a lot of work to do.”
It was East's first loss of the season and the first in head coach Chase Hutchison's three-year coaching career. Hutchison had led Gretna to back-to-back undefeated seasons and had won 50 games in a row before Monday.
Creighton Prep Boys 4, Omaha South 3
Third-place Class A Creighton Prep got three goals from the sophomore and held off a late onslaught to defeat No. 5 Omaha South 4-3 in the Metro Conference Soccer Tournament boys championship.
The defending state champions had Jordan Igwemma and fellow sophomore Tim Dowd each score one goal in the first half just after the break.
Those were some of Prep's four-straight goals in a loss to the Packers in the 2019 Metro Finals, the last time the longtime rivals met for conference honors. With this win, the Junior Jays captured their second metro title in four years.
However, it was the hosts who jumped out early.
South sprinted for the first goal, with Ryan Kubiak's header scoring near the back post in the fourth minute.
The lead lasted less than four minutes before Igwemma's looper went over the head of Packer keeper Israel Zubia for Prep's tying goal.
The Junior Jays took the lead late in the first half when Sean Stratman hit home a ball placed on a tee off the bat in the sixth.
Igwemma scored his second goal just over five minutes after the break, hitting the pocket of one South defender and past another before scoring his fifth goal of the season with an explosion that beat Zubia.
Just 93 seconds later, Dowd scored the all-important goal by curling a shot from outside the box into the top left corner of the goal.
Minami scored two goals and was the victor with just 78 seconds separating them. The first goal was scored by Julian Rodriguez in the 77th minute, followed immediately by Kevin Hernandez.
The Packers mounted a late attack in search of a dramatic tying goal, but were unable to create any danger in the final minutes.
But that's just the beginning of challenging days for the Junior Jays.
Thursday's game against top-ranked Gretna will be a repeat of last year's Class A championship. The weekend double dip between two of Iowa's powerhouses continues. The rematch with Minami begins next week.
