Stevenson earns dramatic draw against Glenbrook South

Stevenson 2, Glenbrook South 2 THE SKINNY: Stevenson junior midfielder Ethan Marx headed in the equalizing goal with 17 seconds remaining Saturday morning as the Patriots tied Glenbrook South 2-2 in the 28th Annual Titan “Warm-Up” Invitational. With the result, the Patriots advanced to Saturday afternoon’s championship game against Wheeling. Stevenson (2-1-1 overall and tournament) lost to the Wildcats 2-0. Stevenson and Glenbrook South had identical tournament records and tied head-to-head, but the NSC Lake team moved on to the final thanks to having conceded fewer goals in the event. Glenbrook South (3-1-1 overall, 2-1-1 tournament) lost 2-0 to Warren in Saturday afternoon’s third-place game. TURNING POINT: Marx’s goal marked Stevenson’s second comeback in the contest. Trailing 1-0 with 22 minutes remaining in the game, Marx’s header off a corner went in front of the net to junior midfielder Cobi Illian, who headed it in. THE STAR: Marx’s tying goal came 24 seconds after he had gotten free for a similar header, but he put his first attempt over the bar. Marx got a second chance when senior midfielder Max Klaber put a long throw into the box. Marx ran onto it at the near post. “I just wanted to keep my composure (after missing the header with 41 seconds remaining) and I got the next one,” said Marx, who finished the game with a goal and an assist. “We had a whole practice on set pieces (recently). You just have to stay tall and for me, get near post. All my flicks have been me going near post and flicking it on (to somebody) or flicking it in.” BY THE NUMBERS: The Titans were without three of their four captains as they tried to hold on in the waning moments. Seniors Luke Pilliod, Kurt Roemer and Kosta Brkovic were all on the bench with injuries. Brkovic, playing at forward, had given his team a 2-1 lead with 11 minutes to play when he stole the ball from a Stevenson defender and slotted it past Patriots sophomore keeper Jeremy Klaber. Glenbrook South got on the board early in the second half thanks to a strike by senior midfielder Peter Campbell. QUOTABLE: “You can’t put a price on how effective that (game) is going to be for the rest of the season, to come back against a seasoned team and to equalize like that,” Patriots coach Mark Schartner said. “It meant something. It wasn’t just to equalize, but to get us to the championship game. It was a big goal.” Glenbrook South coach Paul Agombar said he hopes some lessons were learned. “You almost want to make mistakes at this stage of the season because you want to correct them for later on, when you are playing conference and state playoffs,” he said. “I’m disappointed we didn’t progress to the final. But I’d be much more disappointed if we’re still (struggling to defend set pieces) in game 10.” Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Ethan Marx’s grade in school. He is a junior, not a senior.