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MARSHALL-- The Marshall boys soccer team has had an undefeated season so far, and that streak will continue as the Tigers won their game Thursday against Mankato Loyola 3-1.
Head coach Matt Versaevel said that the Tigers were sharp with their defense. "Defensively, passing was good when we passed the ball instead of just sending it up- that's where we did really well," he said. "Defensively, I'm a big believer in just playing high, so when we played defense well was when we were getting in front of the ball and not letting them cross."
As far as offense goes, Marshall's senior attacker Loving Stee put the first point on the board when he scored a goal with 36 minutes left in the first half. Coach Versaevel was impressed with Stee's performance. "I would say Loving played well," he said. " He did a really great job passing and working around the clock. It takes 11 (players) to do something like this though, so it was really a team effort."
After Stee warmed up the net, the next goal for Marshall came from senior midfielder Chase VanDeVere to put the score at 2-0 with 19 minutes left in the first half. However, this score would not last long as Mankato responded with their first goal roughly two minutes later, moving the score to 2-1.
Marshall hit a rough patch, and the scoring cooled down until the second half. Marshall players Abel Solls, a senior defender, and Loving Stee said that this was where the Tigers slipped on their game. "The first fifteen minutes or so of the first half we played good, and then they put that one (goal) in on us and we kind of lost it for a little bit," Stee said.
Solls said a pep talk from coach got them back into the right mindset. "The second half our coach talked to us and told us what we were doing wrong," he said. "We just kind of picked it up after that." It must've worked, because Marshall found the back of the net with six minutes left in the second half. The goal coming from Marshall junior midfielder Jonathan Alvarez was the last scoring action of the night.
Coming off of this win, Marshall will face off with Worthington next, a team that coach Versaevel says will challenge the Tigers. "We have Worthington on Tuesday, so that's going to be a tough team," he said. "We have to make sure that defensively we can't let anything go through; we have to keep it clean all the way through."