Photo by Jake Przytarski Marshall’s Hsa La Eh fights for possession with Mankato Loyola’s Angel Henriquez during their game on Thursday. The Tigers and Crusaders tied 1-1 in double overtime.

MARSHALL – With the absence of multiple key players–including the team’s leading scorer Mookae Stee–the Marshall boys soccer team struggled to fend off a hungry Mankato-Loyola squad and were forced to settle for a 1-1 tie after previously beating the Crusaders 7-1 earlier in the season.

Marshall coach Roberto Esparza was disappointed with the team’s effort and said the tie felt more like a loss.

“First thing we are missing a lot of key players. But we play with the team we have and I don’t like the way they played,” said Esparza. “You can hear the celebration from the other team because it’s a win for them. We tied, but I feel like it was a loss.”

Junior Eli Salisbury said the team lacked chemistry without its top players but admitted they were a little overconfident entering the match.

“It’s just hard you know there’s no chemistry and we came into the game a little overconfident,” said Salisbury. “We just need to go to St. Peter (this weekend) and just win the game. We need to show what Marshall’s actually made of instead of just (settling for) ties. We can’t have ties anymore.”

The lack of chemistry was apparent for the Marshall offense early on in the match as the team struggled to get in sync. The Crusaders would capitalize on the disjointed play and nearly struck first on a shot that fortunately went right into the waiting hands of goalkeeper Tristan VanDeVere.

Just over eight minutes into the match, the Tigers broke through with their first and only goal of the match off the boot of Mazin Abdallah for his second tally of the season. Abdallah nearly made it 2-0 midway through the first half via a hard strike from long distance that ricocheted off the crossbar, and again on a breakaway late in the half on a pass by Salisbury that found the net but was called offsides.

Marshall continued to push the pace throughout the second half with Salisbury, freshman Luke Kayser, and junior Abdikadir Ali creating multiple scoring chances on cross passes that failed to connect. The clock would continue to run until the seven minute mark when the Crusaders were gifted with a golden opportunity with a penalty kick that they would convert to knot the game up at one apiece.

Following the end of regulation, the two teams battled it out in two five-minute overtime periods in which the Tigers were able to get the better of the scoring opportunities, but were left with nothing to show for it.

With the tie, the Tigers move to 5-2-3 on the season and will look to earn a crucial Big South Conference win over the St. Peter on Saturday at noon. Esparza hopes to see some of the players missing from Thursday’s match back for their matchup against the Saints.

“I told them we have a big match Saturday and the way we played today I don’t know what we’re going to do,” said Esparza. “I hope the other key players can get back for Saturday’s game and we can do better.”