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SECTION 2A BOYS SOCCER: Tigers fall short against Mankato East in quarterfinals, 4-1

Photo by Jake Przytarski Marshall’s Eli Salisbury fights for control during their Section 2A quarterfinal game against Mankato East on Saturday. The Tigers fell to the Cougars 4-1 to end their season.

MANKATO – Coming off a thrilling 1-0 victory to open the Section 2A tournament, the No. 5 Marshall boys soccer team looked to continue its momentum Saturday facing No. 4 seed Mankato East. The Tigers managed to go into halftime knotted at one goal apiece, but three unanswered goals in the second half powered the Cougars past Marshall by a score of 4-1 in the quarterfinal matchup.

Though it wasn’t the result that they had hoped for, coach Matt Versaevel was proud of the way his team performed against a tough Cougar squad and proud of the way they’ve played throughout the entirety of the season.

“The guys did an excellent job,” said Versaevel. “They came together. I couldn’t be more proud of their effort that they’ve done, especially on Saturday and throughout the entire season.”

The gritty effort shown by the Tigers was evident right from the opening kick as the Cougars gave them all they could handle early on and generated multiple quality scoring chances highlighted by a shot that grazed the crossbar four minutes in. With the Cougars continuing to press, they would find the back of the net from a shallow angle at the six-minute mark to jump out to a 1-0 lead.

Galvanized by the early deficit, the Tigers began to apply pressure of their own to the Cougars defense and goalkeeper but continually came up empty. At last, the Tigers would see their tenacious effort rewarded on a textbook short crossing pass by Nick Kayser that found a charging Jonathan Alvarez who redirected the ball with a header over the outstretched arms of the Cougar goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

Following the equalizer, the Tigers continued to threaten with chances before half, but couldn’t breakthrough as the two teams remained knotted up at one apiece going into halftime.

With the momentum firmly on their side, the Tigers picked up where they left off in the first half and had the Cougars on their heels in the opening minute of the second half. Unfortunately, the Cougars would weather the storm and begin to push the ball into the Marshall side of the field once more.

In what would be the turning point of the game, an infraction committed in the penalty area by a Tiger defender in a last-ditch effort to prevent a goal resulted in a penalty kick for the Cougars eight minutes in. With only the goalie standing in the way of the attacker, Mankato East put their second goal on the board and breathed new life into the club after being on the verge of facing a deficit of their own only moments before.

Feeding off of the energy, the Cougars quickly scored two more goals in rapid succession to put the game all but out of reach. Undeterred by the lofty deficit, the Tigers continued to battle and came close to scoring their second goal when Mookae Stee put a laser of a shot on net, but the Mankato East goalkeeper was up to the task and held Marshall scoreless for the remainder of the game.

With the loss, the Tigers finished the season with an overall record of 11-4-2. Versaevel was thrilled by the effort shown by his team throughout the season that culminated in an exciting run.

“Looking at win-loss record we had a lot of wins (so) we did a really good job as far as that (goes),” said Versaevel. “I think we did an excellent job. They came together (and) they played really well together.”

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