Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall's Rylee Jacobson dribbles into the box during the first half of the Tigers' 8-0 win over Worthington in Marshall on Tuesday night.

MARSHALL – After settling for scoreless draws in each of its last two home games against Mankato Loyola and St. Peter, the Marshall girls soccer team exploded for five first-half goals against Worthington in an 8-0 win.

“We’ve been doing good at… starting our defense pretty high so we’re recovering the ball very close to the opponent’s net, so that’s allowing us a lot of chances,” Marshall head coach Jose Losada-Montero said, adding that he felt his team missed several of them in the first half but that its ability to stay connected and keep pushing is giving it consistent chances.

In the Tigers’ last contest, a road matchup against Garretson, S.D., Marshall overcame a 2-0 halftime deficit behind goals from Elsie Deutz and Avery Schneider. Deutz also assisted Schneider’s goal while Anna Keucker was credited with an assist on Deutz’s goal.

Elise Goode led the Tigers’ first-half explosion against the Trojans on Tuesday night, scoring each of the last three goals of the half. The first of her goals was unassisted as she chased down a loose ball from just outside the box and, while boxing out the oncoming defender, fired off a shot that just eked in past the left post to give Marshall a 3-0 lead 13 minutes into the match.

Goode’s second and third goals both came on nearly the same play. Rylee Jacobson dribbled the ball into the left corner of the 12-yard box along the goal line and found Goode open by the penalty shot for a one-timer. The only difference between the goals, which came within a minute of each other, was that a Worthington defender was able to deflect the latter shot. Yet, she didn’t get a big enough piece of it to stop Goode’s goal from reaching the back of the net.

Goode also scored a fourth goal with 15 minutes remaining in the game to make the score 8-0. 

In addition to her pair of assists, Jacobson scored the second Marshall goal 10 minutes into the match. The ball appeared primed to go out of bounds for a goal kick, but Jacobson saved it and turned to her left. After beating a defender, Jacobson had just the keeper standing between her and the goal; the keeper charged and got a piece of the ball, but it didn’t matter as Jacobson’s ball rolled across the goal line to double the Tiger lead. Jacobson also assisted another goal in the second half to finish the match with four points.

“That connection, that chemistry that we are building today works pretty good with Rylee and Elise. They were back and forth passing together, there’s no selfishness in this team,” Losada-Montero said. 

“They’re always looking for an extra pass. I think today, everybody could see that going on, a lot of, ‘who’s more free than me? Who’s in a better position than me?’ Rylee is very good at that, I think she got the chance to score several times but she’s always looking for who’s got a better position.”

Just over five minutes into the game, Deutz found Hannah Gordon open for a centering pass at the top of the box. Gordon wasted no time to take advantage of the opportunity, sending a rocket into the top shelf to put Marshall on the board. She also scored another goal halfway through the second half to make the score 7-0. 

Anna DeGroot was effective in goal, albeit on limited reps due to the Tigers’ domination of possession. She finished the game with two saves and a clean sheet.

Eight minutes after halftime, the Tigers were once again able to work the ball close to the net. A terrific save by the Worthington goalkeeper and a pair of stops and deflections by Trojan defenders nearly had the goal cleared before Marshall recovered the ball near the perimeter of the box and quickly got off a shot to increase the lead to 6-0.

Marshall (5-4-3) has been draw-heavy but hasn’t lost since Sept. 9. The Tigers will look to pick up another win when they go on the road for a rematch against St. Peter on Saturday at 10 a.m. The Saints ended the Tigers’ season with a 3-0 loss in the section quarterfinals last year, but the teams’ last two regular-season matchups have both ended in draws. 

Losada-Montero said he believes that the Tigers haven’t won before in St. Peter and that the fact that the Saints’ field is slightly narrower than Marshall’s is disadvantageous to the Tigers’ emphasis on making use of space offensively. Still, the Tigers are ready to go out and compete.

“We’re going to give our best and I think the girls are ready… We don’t have a game on Thursday, so hopefully everybody’s fresh. We’re facing, in our last week, very good opponents,” Losada-Montero said, giving credit to St. Peter, Fairmont and New Ulm’s consistency throughout the season. “A lot of things that happen in sections are going to be decided that last week. Wherever we’re going to end in the conference, it’s going to happen next week.”