OMAHA — For Omaha Marian, the emotions Monday night were a mix of revenge and bragging.
The second-place Crusaders got two first-half goals from senior Anna Bragg and enough points after halftime to beat No. 4 Gretna East 3-1 in the Metro Conference girls soccer tournament finals. .
Marian coach Teresa DeGeorge called the win, which was the program's first Metro honors since 2017, “awesome.”
Sophomore Paige Miller put the Crusaders ahead with a goal in the 14th minute. Bragg added another point less than four minutes later, floating a centering ball from around 20 yards out from the right touchline that curled into the net over the back post.
“It was a perfect cross and I was like, 'Oh, wait, it's the back of the net,'” Bragg said.
The Creighton rookie scored his second goal just before intermission, hitting a shot back during a run to the right for his team-leading 16th of the season.
Others are also reading…
“It was definitely our strategy to bring the energy in the first five minutes,” Bragg said. “We had to show them that we were here and that we could dominate.”
Marian lost in each of the last two Metro Championships to Gretna, which was split into two teams this season.
DeGeorge and Bragg acknowledged there will be some reward, even if the opposing Gretna team is a different color.
“I told the girls this is like a Class A and Class B state championship,” DeGeorge said, referring to East's status as the No. 1 Class B state championship, adding, “We are going to win the I had to show what I had.”
Toughness was what the Crusaders had on Monday night.
“I think we frustrated them in the first half,” DeGeorge said. “We shut them down offensively and then we started attacking. Every time we scored, we got more aggressive in the first half. That was our strategy and they executed it. Ta.”
Gretna East got one back in the 55th minute when Carly Williams hit a shot from 30 yards out. The Griffins, who defeated No. 3 Gretna in the semifinals on Saturday, got even closer with 11 minutes left, but a Marian defender narrowly cleared the ball at the line to maintain a two-point lead.
The Crusaders had a 10-3 corner kick advantage and outscored Gretna East 17-9 on the night.
“I thought we did great in the first half,” DeGeorge said. “I thought we were a little disappointed in the second half. We need to work on playing our best for 80 minutes this week.”
He will be the center of attention for the Crusaders, who have not played a game for 10 days.
“I like it, but I don't like it,” DeGeorge said of his team's play. “We're not there yet. They're great, I want to be great. We still have a lot of work to do.”
It was East's first loss of the season and the first in head coach Chase Hutchison's three-year coaching career. Hutchison had led Gretna to back-to-back undefeated seasons and had won 50 games in a row before Monday.