Photo by Travis Rosenau/The Journal, New Ulm Marshall forward Moo Gay jogs toward the center of the field after scoring a goal during the Big South Conference’s boys soccer championship game in New Ulm on Tuesday night. The Tigers defeated the Eagles 1-0.

NEW ULM — Despite the New Ulm Eagles outshooting the Marshall Tigers on Tuesday night, it only took one of those shots off the foot of Moo Gay to lift his Tigers to a Big South Conference Boys Soccer Championship win at New Ulm High School.

Gay’s goal came in the 20th minute of play on a pass from Isaiah Argueta. In a physical title game where New Ulm outshot Marshall 12-9 in shots on goal, Gay’s goal was all the Tigers needed offensively.

“I was like, ‘Come prepared,’ and I knew I was going to score,” Gay said. “But at the same time, my hamstring, I’m still injured and I couldn’t go 100%. I wanted to play well, but I couldn’t do it because of my hamstring. But about the goal, I saw it and I know he saw me, that’s why I run through it. If you know my history, I feel it when I ran, but I force it and that’s how we got the goal.”

That might have been all the Tigers needed offensively, but defense and goalkeeping was in high demand also, especially late in the game. In the 63rd minute, Junior Amoah set up Jackson Ocampo with a pass and a chance to score. Ocampo made one defender miss and dribbled past another two before getting in the goal box and making a sliding shot that a sliding Marshall goalie Roberto Garcia Lopez was unable to grab. The shot, however, hit off the post before being cleared out of bounds.

Finding the post was the story of the game for the Eagles, who rushed to get any shot they could get off. When they had another chance in the final few minutes of play, a shot in close by Joshua Shaneman was saved on a diving stop by Garcia Lopez, who covered the ball up. Lopez finished with 12 saves.

“We had our opportunities, it bounced off the goal posts a couple times,” New Ulm head coach Tim Plocher said. “Josh had a phenomenal shot but the goalie just got a hand on it, which he’s a fantastic goalie, too. Props to him. They just got to sneak one past, which is unfortunate, but it is what it is.”

Gay’s first-half goal was charged by New Ulm goalie Jens Quist, who made his share of impressive saves in the game also. Gay just beat Quist to the ball, however, and got his shot to bounce in.

Gay said the Big South title means a lot to the team and school, but he’s more happy to just play the game and do what he can to help his teammates.

“To me, I enjoy the sport, I just try my best, have fun and help out the team as best as I can,” Gay said. “It feels normal, it’s just another day. [laughs].”

New Ulm (11-3-1) hosts Mankato East on Thursday to end the regular season, while Marshall (12-2-2) will have some time to enjoy its conference title as it awaits Section 2AA playoffs.