Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall midfielder Isaiah Argueta attempts to dribble around a defender during the No. 2 Tigers' 3-0 loss to No. 7 Jordan in Marshall on Tuesday night.

MARSHALL — Despite a terrific regular season featuring Minnesota’s leading goal-scorer in Moo Gay, the No. 2 Marshall boys soccer team was held scoreless in a 3-0 loss to No. 7 Jordan in the first round of the 2AA section tournament.

“They [Jordan] have big, fast guys and we were trying to match that physicality. That’s not our style at all and we should have just kept it to passing, combining passes on the ground and we just couldn’t today,” Marshall head coach Tony Correa said after the match.

Jordan’s victory avenges a loss in last year’s quarterfinals, where Marshall defeated the Hubmen 3-1. Correa gave credit to Jordan’s program, saying that they’ve improved since then and that he likes what they’re doing over there.

The Hubmen’s game-winning goal came on an own goal 17 minutes into the first half. Jordan cleared the ball into the attacking third, dribbled right into the corner and crossed the ball toward the middle. The Marshall defense was able to get a piece of the ball but not all of it, deflecting it toward the net for an own goal and a 1-0 Jordan lead.

Two minutes later, Marshall had a scoring opportunity of its own with Isaiah Argueta and Moo Gay streaking toward the goal. Argueta was able to find Gay with the centering pass but the shot went wide left, keeping the Jordan lead intact.

Gay, the state of Minnesota’s leading goal scorer this season, was injured with eight minutes remaining in the first half after colliding with a defender while going up for a header. As he remained on the ground, Jordan rapidly advanced the ball down the field and Malaki Malundo sent a screamer into the top shelf for a 2-0 lead.

“I feel like both of the first two goals were just mistakes,” Correa said. “We just needed to communicate louder and be more assertive about whoever was going to go for that ball. I think we kind of just hesitated, both parties, and caused the mistake… I told these guys at the beginning of the game that every touch counts, so when we go out there, we’re not just randomly running around. That’s what it kind of looked like today, so we did the polar opposite.”

Gay was removed from the game after the injury but returned in the second half.

Caden Lehnen added one more insurance goal for the Hubmen 11 minutes into the second half to put the game out of reach for the Tigers.

Argueta took a shot from the far right corner of the box and placed the ball right under the crossbar halfway through the second half, but Jordan keeper Charlie Valle leaped up to make the grab and continue the clean sheet.

Moments later, Marshall was awarded a free kick after Jared Hernandez was taken down on a fast break just outside of the box. Gay took the kick and wrapped it around the wall of Jordan defenders towards the top corner of the net, but once again Valle was able to get a hand on the ball to keep the Tigers scoreless.

Jasiel Flores sent a well-placed cross from the corner to a pair of teammates just feet from the center of the goal with six minutes remaining in the match. Unfortunately, both defenders were within finishing range and a lack of communication led them to both make a move for the ball and instead get their feet tangled and falling on it.

The Marshall Tigers finish their season with a 12-5 record and sat just a goal differential tiebreaker away from the first Big South title in program history. Tuesday’s loss was only Marshall’s second loss of the season against a Class AA opponent, with the other being a 4-0 loss to conference-champion Worthington.

“I’m proud of these guys for the achievements that we’ve had. We did good things, we could have done better,” Correa said. “It’s just the little things that add up to these moments. I think we weren’t careful the whole way through and we need to be more careful next year when most of the core is going to be seniors. You could kind of see the inexperience at times and I think today we just did a little too much on the ball instead of passing it and being more secure with the passing.”

Marshall will be losing four seniors in Angel Ramon Ramos, Cesar Guzman Moreno, Ahmed Ahmed and Geremy Velasquez.

“Our defense was key this year and we had a lot of strong players in the back. We’ll just have to find someone to fill that role,” Correa said, adding that he was thankful for this year’s senior class consistently coming out, doing what they’re supposed to do and knowing where to be on the field.