By Sheldon Shealer

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. - Two minutes of brilliance.

That's all Christian Brothers (Mo.) needed Saturday afternoon to pin a 3-0 defeat on Milwaukee Marquette (Wis.) in the Gateway City Soccer Classic's Victor Arbelaez Memorial Bracket championship at the Metro United Complex.

Sophomore Derek Cornell one-timed a pass from Zach Hundelt in the 14^th minute and Kyle Schraier delivered a powerful header on a cross from Hatt Hutchison in the 15^th minute before the teams hunkered down and went scoreless the next 65 minutes of the match.

"We're a spurty team, CBC's Terry Michler said. "That's been the story of our year  we score in bunches.

CBC's victory brings the tournament title back to St. Louis for the first time since 2005 when St. John Vianney won the inaugural event's elite bracket.

Neuqua Valley (Ill.), the 2006 champion, defeated St. John the Baptist (N.Y.) 3-2 for third place in the Arbelaez Bracket, Rockhurst (Mo.), last year's champion, defeated Cathedral Prep (Pa.) for fifth place and Bishop Gorman (Nev.) and Cherry Creek (Colo.) played for seventh place.

In the other championship matches, St. Thomas Aquinas (Kan.) defeated Glendale (Mo.) 2-1 for the Taigen Rose Finley Memorial Bracket title and Reitz Memorial (Ind.) stretched its undefeated streak to 42 matches with a 2-0 win over St. Vincent/St. Mary (Ohio) in the John Strodtman Memorial Bracket final.

In the Arbelaez final, CBC caught the first break eight minutes into the match thanks to a miscommunication in Marquette's defense. Marquette keeper Dan Donovan came off his line to collect a ball played forward by CBC. Although a charging Donovan called for the ball, a Marquette defender opted to head it toward Donovan, but instead popped it over his keeper's head. Donovan retreated, but could not make the save as the ball hit the net for an own goal.

Only minutes later, Cornell delivered for a 2-0 lead and Schraier capped the scoring one minute later.

"We had a mental lapse for 10 minutes of the game, and that was the difference, Marquette coach Steve Lawrence said. "You can't have a lapse like that against a team like Christian Brothers.

Marquette played its semifinal match earlier in the day and Lawrence opted to start a few reserve players against CBC to put fresh legs on the field. UC-Santa Barbara-bound Robbie Boyd did not get onto the field until Marquette trailed 1-0, and two other starters did not see playing time until Marquette was down 3-0. That aside, Marquette created few chances and never really threatened to rally. CBC keeper Drew Duncan turned away Marquette's best scoring chance after Jacob Stack got behind the defense for an open attempt on goal.

In the third place match, Neuqua Valley held a 3-0 lead until St. John the Baptist scored twice in the second half  the second goal coming in the last second of play. Junior Bryan Ciesiulka scored Neuqua Valley's first two goals before senior Bill Uniacke gave the team a 3-0 lead. Stephen Miller and John Sheridan scored for St. John the Baptist.

In the Finley Bracket final, sophomore midfielder Kyle Whigham scored the first goal and Brendan Copeland added the second as Aquinas built a 2-0 lead over Glendale. Glendale scored in the closing minutes to make it close.

Reitz Memorial capped its stellar weekend run with a 2-0 victory over St. Vincent/St. Mary with Max Lachowecki and Tyler Veith scoring goals.

Earlier in the day, Marquette advanced to the Arbelaez Bracket championship with a 1-0 victory over Neuqua Valley. Bryan Wright scored a first-half goal that stood up for Marquette. In the consolation semifinal played Saturday morning, Russ Tattersall scored three goals for Cathedral Prep in a 5-2 win over Gorman. Brad Colvin and Joe Sambuchino also scored for the winners. Shane Thompson and Ramak Roohani scored for Gorman.