BROADVIEW HEIGHTS - Soccer is one of just a few sports in which one team can thoroughly dominate and still not be ahead.

All that counts are goals. And the Cardinal Mooney boys didn't score any in the first half of its Division II regional semifinal Tuesday night against plucky Marlington. But the Cardinals remedied that after intermission and emerged with a 2-1 victory.

They are making their 10th consecutive regional appearance and can clinch their first trip to state since 2005 with a win over Mentor Lake Catholic Saturday night at Lyndhurst Brush High School.

The Dukes (11-5-3) spent nearly the entire game trying to clear the ball out of their own end. They did so quite successfully most of the way, but could muster nothing offensively. Their lone goal came off the foot of sophomore Cameron Binkley on a penalty kick that sped past Mooney goalie David Perry with just 1:25 remaining in the game.

The Cardinals (11-7-2) were frustrated repeatedly in the first half, during which it pounded 14 shots, including six on goal that were saved by Marlington sophomore keeper Michael McDermott. They trudged to the locker room at halftime in a scoreless tie.

"We didn't finish early," explained coach Larry Lencyk. "It's easier said than done with the pressure and speed of the game. It's an issue we've had the last three games."

Fortunately, the defense has been sensational, having yielded just one goal in the postseason. And the offense has always come through eventually, as it did just three minutes into the second half. That's when leading scorer Thomas Beck redirected a pass-in to Clay Hicks, who deflected it past McDermott to break the ice and give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.

Beck added his team-best 14th assist of the season with seven minutes remaining when McDermott and another Dukes defender couldn't secure his shot, which bounded left in front of an open net. Eric Ehrenberg booted it in from there and Mooney had a 2-0 advantage and some much-needed breathing room.

"We got lucky when their keeper mishandled it," Beck said about the second tally. "That's what we've been working on the the last three or four weeks - following up on our shots."

Lencyk believed that the second goal was more important than the first.

"You want that second goal to put the game away," he said. "A lot of times when you get that first one, that just fires up the other team."

The Dukes were fired up from beginning to end, but it didn't matter when they spent nearly the whole game playing around their own goal. Coach Mark Platts lamented that fact minutes after the ball had taken its last bounce.

"I told the guys at halftime that with the score 0-0, we should be the happier team right now," he said. "But defending 35 of the 40 minutes was not in our game plan. It took our team to have the first goal scored against us to get out of our shell and play the way we normally play."

Indeed, Marlington didn't even sniff a goal until Binkley's penalty kick. But its defense, which has yielded an average of 0.7 goals a game this season, hung tough. The only problem was that the Mooney defense was even stronger.

Lencyk, however, claimed that it could be better. With a possible trip to state on the line, he's taking nothing for granted.

"You're never 100 percent satisfied, but the defense did a pretty good job," he said. "We gave them a lot of chances with silly fouls and that's something we're going to have to clean up."

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