Barrett Trabucco and Colton Oram each scored twice for the No. 3 Marathon boys soccer team in a 5-0 route of No. 6 Oxford in Saturday’s Section IV Class C quarterfinal matchup at Marathon High School.
The Olympians showed little signs of rust despite having a week since winning the IAC Small Schools championship. They came out of the gates in firm control and took the lead five minutes in when Aydan Brown found Oram for his first goal of the night. The scoring chances came in bunches from there, but Marathon failed to cash in again in the first half.
“We came out fast and put the pressure on them, had a lot of chances and we just didn’t execute,” Marathon head coach Aubrey Brown said. “We talk about that all the time. That’s the biggest difference for us and where we want to get to, is if we can execute or not.”
Brown had little to dislike about his team’s execution in the final 40. Marathon was a buzzsaw in the second half, generating offense at will.
The Olympians’ first of four second half goals came less than six minutes in. Colton Howe flicked a ball into the box that was headed in by Trabucco. The floodgates were open after that.
“It could have been three or four to nothing in the first half, ” Brown said. “So, we really wanted to emphasize that execution to get that first goal of the half and then keep it going, to kind of take the air out of them and take care of business that way.”
Oram just missed on multiple chances over the next several minutes. Charlie Forkey did find the mark to extend the lead on a perfect pass from Trabucco, who found Forkey trailing the play.
Trabucco and Oram combined for the final two goals of the night, each assisting on the other’s marker. The two goals came 31 seconds apart, and despite 20 minutes left to play it was all but a formality from there. The duo recorded a point on every goal for Marathon.
“With our runs we had plenty of space for through balls, Oram said. “ It made it easy to feed everybody and get the switches. It was just easy goals that way, it’s what we do in practice every day.”
Marathon will face a familiar foe in the semifinals in the form of No. 2 Southern Cayuga. The Olympians went 1-0-1 in the two regular season meetings. Marathon knows it will be a big challenge to knock off its biggest rival a second time.
“We have to go back up there and (they have) home field advantage, when people are familiar with each other, that can be the difference in a game,” Brown said. “If we just show up and execute like I know we can, we can get another win under our belt. But I know they’re going to want payback because we got them last time.”
“We have to play all 80 minutes like we did the second half (Saturday),” Trabucco said. “Everybody’s going to have to play to the best of their abilities. We’re only going to get a few chances and you have to execute on them.”
The rubber match is set for 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at Southern Cayuga High School.
