KOKOMO — Logansport’s boys soccer team had its chances, but they were too few and far between. And the Berries didn’t capitalize on those rare chances.
Marion controlled play throughout and came up with the big plays in a 3-0 win over the Berries Saturday night in the Class 2A Kokomo Sectional championship game.
The Giants (14-1-1) won their seventh sectional title in a row and coach Jorge Berry became 7-for-7 in delivering Marion sectional championships.
“I’ve told everybody and I’ll continue to say it, this is the best team I’ve had here at Marion,” Berry said. “I’ve always had good individuals, but this is the best team overall. We work extremely hard.”
Corey Deaton scored two goals and Mitchell Diedrich had a goal and two assists to lead the Giants. Diedrich got them on the board in the game’s 27th minute when he scored on a ricochet from a Kyle Clark shot on a corner kick.
Marion led 1-0 at halftime before Deaton scored on a corner kick by Diedrich four minutes into the second half.
Logan nearly answered just seconds later but had a good look sail over the goal.
Marion goalkeeper Derrick Harvey then made a great tip save in the 56th minute on a shot by Ramon DeLatorre after Pedro Hernandez had set him up with a good look.
“That would have put us right back in it,” Logan coach Mike Turner said. “Then we gave up that third one and it just took the life out of us.”
The third goal came in the 66th minute on a header by Deaton on an assist by Blake Beal following a free kick.
All three of Marion’s goals came on set pieces.
“That’s just something we work on and we have the athletes to be able to do some stuff like that,” Berry said. “Corey Deaton, my sweeper back, is just unbelievable. That’s his 15th goal of the year, I believe, and Mitchell Diedrich had two of those assists. He now has 15 assists.”
Said Turner: “They’re good. I don’t take that away. I was pleased we didn’t give up a goal in the run of play. They created chances, but they didn’t score in the run of play. Everything was on set pieces — corner or a free kick. I think we did a good job of defending other than on set pieces. We’re just going to have to get better. You can’t make them taller, I wish we could.
“I think we only created about six opportunities and we’ve just got to do better with those.”
Marion controlled possession throughout and Logan goalkeeper Connor Kinnaman had a nice game keeping the Berries (7-11) in it.
“He played well. He made some really nice saves. He kept us in it,” Turner said. “But we’ve got to score goals when we get our opportunities.”
“It just takes one and it takes confidence. We hung in there,” Berry said.
Turner was looking for a more successful season.
“I think we lost six games by one goal. It was just all season, that one mistake and that lack of finishing one goal to put us over the top. That’s what we are this year,” he said. “We have a lot of juniors this year, so we’re going to be very senior-heavy next year.”
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