McGivney Shutout By Crusaders – Late First Half Goal Proves Decisive
The Griffins and Crusaders will meet for their second GMC meeting on Thursday, October 9, in Belleville.
GLEN CARBON – The Father McGivney Catholic High School boys soccer team was 42 seconds away from a goalless tie at halftime.
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But the defending IHSA Class 2A state champions, and Gateway Metro Conference rivals, Althoff Catholic, had other ideas.
After constant pressure from the Crusaders, McGivney's right back, Anthony Harkins, chased down a loose ball that would have gone out for a corner kick. It was a nice piece of defending that didn’t happen to pay off.
Instead, Althoff’s Ben Ysursa launched a long throw into the 18-yard box that multiple players rose to the occasion for. After a mad scrum mid-air, Tyler Birdsong was the one to get a piece of it and deflect it past McGivney keeper Patrick Gierer and into the back of the net to make it 1-0.
The Crusaders would go on to score twice more in the second half en route to a 3-0 victory, improving to 7-2-1 on the season. After winning their first three games, McGivney has now lost three straight.
“We don’t give up that goal with a couple of seconds left, who knows how that second half goes,” Father McGivney head coach Brett Schubert said. “That was just very deflating because the kids played such a good first half.”
The first 40 minutes were a back-and-forth affair. While McGivney didn’t have any clear-cut chances on net, its defense held strong against an Althoff side that was knocking on the door all half.
“Years and years ago, as a player, my coach always used to talk about rhythm in the first five minutes and the last five minutes of each half,” Althoff head coach Skip Birdsong said. “When [McGivney] fought as hard as they did to stay even that long, and when you get one right before half, obviously, it’s a huge momentum swing. Huge at that moment.”
“The chaos is part of the plan,” Schubert said of the game’s opening goal. “They’re throwing balls into the box, and it’s just pressure. It’s about how we can respond to that, how we deal with it, and a young team is going to have problems dealing with pressure.”
“Props to Althoff, they know they can put pressure on teams and they’re going to bend, and that just happened to us tonight,” Schubert continued. “We’ll be better for it next time we see them, and we’ve just got to keep pushing through this.”
Sam Medlin doubled the lead in the 53rd minute, and Dax Ahlers put the icing on the cake in the 72nd minute to get to the final of 3-0.
“It’s always a good, hard-fought game,” Birdsong said about playing McGivney. “Their keeper (Gierer) is really good, obviously, and made a number of huge saves throughout the whole game. We kept up the pressure, kept up the pressure, and we were lucky to get one right before halftime and then certainly fortunate to get two more in the second half.”
The Crusaders have now won seven of their first 10 games. Six of those wins are shutouts. Being the conference opener, they improved to 1-0 in the GMC.
McGivney is now on a three-game scoreless streak, having lost to Triad 2-0, Waterloo 2-0, and now Althoff 3-0 to start the month of September.
“It doesn’t get easier. Thursday is at Alton Marquette, but that’s what we want. We want the competition,” Schubert said. “We want to play those big schools, because it makes us better for it. There’s no discouragement toward it. We want that competition at the end of the day.”
The Griffins already have to take on Marquette and Althoff twice a season in conference, but other non-conference games include Highland, Mascoutah, Columbia, Freeburg, Granite City, and the regular-season finale at Collinsville.
McGivney is certainly no slouch when it comes to fighting above its weight class.
“We’re constantly working toward the playoffs, getting our team ready,” Schubert continued. “Those first couple of games, we were fighting through bumps and bruises that we’re just starting to get over. It’s just a matter of a young team and hoping they keep the belief, keep playing for each other, and keep fighting for 80 minutes.”
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