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PREP GIRLS SOCCER: Marshall girls soccer falls 2-1 to New Ulm in home opener

Photo by Jake Przytarski Marshall’s Maddy VanKeulen fights for possession of the ball during Friday’s home opener against New Ulm. The Eagles defeated the Tigers 2-1.

MARSHALL — A spirited effort put forth by the Marshall girls soccer team came up just short in Friday’s home opener against Big South Conference-rival New Ulm. The Eagles scored both of their goals late in the second half and managed to ward off a late comeback bid by the Tigers in a 2-1 final.

Though the outcome wasn’t what they had hoped for, Marshall coach Chuy Hernandez was proud of the way the Tigers competed in both halves of the contest.

“Overall I feel like our girls are getting stronger physically and mentally. I feel like we put up a good fight,” said Hernandez. “They hustled every minute. I feel like today we gave them a fight from minute one to the last minute of the game. so we’re happy about that.”

Hernandez said the team was excited to get back on its home field.

“They were very excited. We’re all excited to play at home, but also with the situation out there with Covid we told the girls to enjoy every minute that you’re out there on the field because we don’t know if we’re going to get to the end of the season or not. As of right now we’re excited to play every game,” said Hernandez.

The first half of Friday’s matchup was a stalemate defensively with both teams jockeying for possession of the ball at midfield looking for an opening to break the deadlock. The Tigers threatened to do just that at the 14 minute mark after a hard strike by Maddy VanKeulen was stopped, and later a corner kick in the waning minutes failed to materialize to keep the game scoreless into halftime.

New Ulm opened the second half by applying offensive pressure on Marshall goalkeeper Emma Mernaugh with multiple point-blank chances that failed to find the back of the net. The Eagles would not be denied in the end, though, as the visitors kept firing before breaking through with 13:59 left to play in the game. New Ulm went on to add an insurance goal with just under five minutes left to play to make it 2-0.

Down but not out, the Tigers refused to let up down the stretch and were rewarded for their efforts when Danya Estrada broke free from the Eagle defenders and cut the deficit to one with a goal at the 2:17 mark. Estrada’s tally was Marshall’s lone goal in a 2-1 final.

Marshall (0-2) will be back in action on Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. in New Ulm when the Tigers take on the Eagles for a second-straight game. Looking ahead, coach Hernandez is hopeful that they can do a better job of capitalizing on their scoring chances.

“We’re going to work on finishing. I think we had some pretty good opportunities and we didn’t quite finish the way we wanted to, so that’s probably the area that we will work on the most and talk about the most,” said Hernandez.

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