Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Daniel VanKeulen tries to get around a Worthington defender during their game on Monday. Marshall fell to Worthington 4-3.

MARSHALL – The Marshall 17U C3 boys soccer team built themselves an early lead in the first half of their game against Worthington. Unfortunately for Marshall, they couldn’t keep up their momentum, and Worthington outlasted the Tigers 4-3 Monday evening at Marshall High School.

Worthington got things started with an early goal to go up 1-0, but Marshall would battle back throughout the remainder of the first half. The Tigers got on the board when Daniel VanKeulen beat the goaltender to tie the game at 1-1 before Chase VanDeVere put Marshall up 2-1 with a line drive goal later in the half.

Worthington then broke out the offense in the second half, scoring three consecutive goals to push their lead to 4-2. Marshall got a goal from Loving Stee in the late stages of the second half, but couldn’t pull any closer en route to the 4-3 loss.

Marshall 17U coach Sam Duran said he was pleased with his team’s effort against one of the tougher teams in Worthington.

“Worthington is a good team. I told the guys at the beginning of the game that they need to go into the game with all the confidence in the world,” Duran said. “You don’t always play kids the same age as you when you look at soccer beyond high school. I told them to go in with all the confidence in the world and learn something from them. I think our guys got a lot to take in tonight.”

Duran said the key on the offensive end was their ball movement.

“In the first half I think what helped us a lot was we moved the ball to our feet,” Duran said. “We didn’t send the ball and moved up as a unit.”

Duran said their biggest takeaway will be finishing the season on a strong note.

“Before the 4th of July weekend, we had a game against Madelia. When those guys came, it looked like they were out of it,” Duran said. “I think this game kind of put us back in it and tuned us up a bit and hopefully we can finish the season strong.”