Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Danya Estrada (2) and Emma Mernaugh (12) celebrate with Anna Kuecker (15) after she scored a goal during their game against Tri-City United on Tuesday. Marshall defeated TCU 7-0.

MARSHALL — After not being able to find the back of the net in either of its past three games, the Marshall girls soccer team opened the offensive floodgates on Tuesday, netting three first-half goals before adding four more in the second half to earn a 7-0 victory against Tri-City United at Mattke Field.

Marshall coach Jesus Hernandez said they felt they needed to get some scoring to boost their confidence and was pleased with their effort, especially on the offensive end.

“Offensively I think the girls knew we needed to come out strong from the beginning and we needed to get some shots in the net to regain that confidence, so I think this was a great way to do it,” coach Hernandez said.

Marshall was aggressive on offense right from the start, and earned a penalty kick in the opening minutes but the shot went just wide. MHS continued to get plenty of scoring chances over the next several minutes, including getting a shot off the crossbar before finally capitalizing when Danya Estrada found the back of the net to make it 1-0 with 19:27 left in the first half. Marshall wasn’t done there, as Hannah Gordon broke free for a goal a minute later to make it 2-0. Then after several minutes of back and forth play, Marshall struck again, this time with Marissa Talamantes curling in a shot from the corner for a goal to push their lead to 3-0, which stood until halftime.

Marshall continued its strong offensive play in the second half, as Hannah Gordon got her second goal of the evening nine minutes into the frame to make it 4-0. MHS would keep the ball on TCU’s side of the field for the majority of the half, and take several shots on net, with Elise Goode getting one past the goalkeeper with 13 minutes left to push it to 5-0 before Maddy VanKeulen made it 6-0 a few minutes later with a goal. Anna Kuecker then added to the scoring with a strike in the closing minutes to bring it to the 7-0 final.

Up next

Marshall (2-3) will face St. Peter at home next Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. Coach Hernandez said their biggest takeaway is to continue to finish their shots the way they do in practice and felt they did a good job of executing that throughout the game.

“The finishes, most of them were great; we keep telling them ‘Don’t shoot it at the goalie, shoot it at the corners or on the sides’ and a few of the goals were finished in the way that we picture it in our practices,” coach Hernandez said. “That’s something we want to keep working on and bring to the next game.”