Whitefish Bay Boys Soccer Falls to Nation's Fifth-Ranked Team in Sectional Final

Whitefish Bay knew it had to play a nearly flawless 80 minutes going against one of the top-rated high school soccer teams in the country. The Blue Dukes finished just a few minutes short of their goal.

Marquette University High School (21-0-1) scored a pair of goals just before halftime as the Hilltoppers — ranked No. 5 in the nation by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America — earned a berth to the state tournament by knocking off the Blue Dukes (17-6-0) 2-0.

“We didn’t really change the style of play,” Whitefish Bay head coach Kevin Brennan said. “The mindset we take is for every single game: a lot of work rate, keep our discipline, keep our shape.

“I feel for the fellas in the game. We held them (Marquette). We even got a couple of opportunities but you’ve always got to respect a team like that with the talent that they’ve got and eventually the talent came through and they got the result.”

Marquette’s sensational senior and Notre Dame commit Patrick Hodan netted what proved to be the game winner in the 38th minute on a shot from the top of the 18-yard-box that keeper Anders Bjella had no chance to get.

The Hilltoppers struck again just 74 seconds later on a giveaway by the defense that was put away by senior Alex Lane from virtually the same spot as the previous goal.

“We were frustrated after the first goal,” Brennan said. “We felt there were a couple of calls that didn’t go our way which probably should have, and that kind of allowed their first goal so we were a little rattled and we didn’t get ourselves set so that’s definitely part of the reason the second one came so quick.

Bay continued to fight in the second half and was kept in the game by an outstanding performance by Bjella.

“He’s a fantastic kid,” Brenner said of his keeper. “He was picking the ball out of corners that he really had no right in saving. He provided the bedrock for us to go forward but unfortunately we couldn’t get the result.

The Blue Dukes had two marvelous chances of their own to get on the board in the second half but just couldn’t find the back of the net.

Sophomore Paul Gwidt’s shot in the 66th minute crashed off the crossbar and junior TJ Schmid’s left-footed strike with less than a minute to play sailed just over as Bay’s season came to an end.

“It was a nice season,” Brennan said. ”We obviously got the conference win and we got this far. The group of players were fantastic. It’s not like I just had a group of seniors; we had boys all over the age level and they were all performing very well.

“No loss is ever easy to swallow. I fell that we’ve been beaten by the future state champions, again, so if you can ever take a positive out of a defeat it would probably be that.”