Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall tight end JR Vierstraete (3) and Logan Eickhoff celebrate a receiving touchdown from Vierstraete during the Tigers' 41-0 win over Benilde-St. Margaret's to close out the regular season on Wednesday and Marshall. Vierstraete and Eickhoff each had touchdowns in the game, as well as two fumble recoveries for Vierstraete and an interception for Eickhoff.

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MARSHALL — A lopsided win over Benilde-St. Margaret’s capped off the No. 2 Marshall football team’s perfect regular season on Wednesday. The Tigers scored the game’s first touchdown just over a minute after the opening kickoff and never looked back, coasting to a 41-0 victory at Mattke Field.

On the first play from scrimmage, the Tigers ran a flea-flicker pass from Levi Maeyaert to Ethan Boeck, who made the catch while falling backwards for a 37-yard gain into the red zone. Two plays later, Tyler Kraft capped off the drive by charging through the middle for a 12-yard touchdown run, giving Marshall a 7-0 lead 70 seconds into the game.

Andrew Stelter gave Marshall set up the Tigers’ first drive by returning the opening kickoff to the opposing 49-yard line.

With four minutes left in the first half, Logan Eickhoff intercepted an underthrown deep ball at the Benilde 23-yard line. With the entire Red Knights offense rolling to the right, Eickhoff had nothing but green pastures ahead as he returned the pick 77 yards for a touchdown. A mishandled snap resulted in a failed conversion attempt, but Marshall still led 27-0 after the play.

Less than a minute later, Aidan Bly came up with another interception, this one in BSM territory and returned to the 23-yard line. Stelter quickly took advantage of the opportunity by taking a run outside of the tackles down the left sideline, stutterstepping his way past one defender and stiffarming his way through another as he tiptoed into the end zone to make the score 34-0 with two minutes remaining before the half.

Turnovers benefitted the Tigers throughout the first half. Marshall Peanut-punched a ball loose near midfield, with JR Vierstraete recovering the loose ball, and 14- and 11-yard runs from Kraft advanced the ball into the red zone. From there, Marshall ran five consecutive run plays before Kraft took the ball from the half-yard line over the goalline for a 21-0 lead three minutes into the second quarter.

Benilde couldn’t get anything going on its first two drives, going 3-and-out each time. Marshall responded by marching down the field with a series of runs before finding Vierstraete on the flat on the first of those two drives. Vierstraete ran through a defender and crossed the pylon to double Marshall’s lead to 7-0.

Stelter blocked the Red Knights’ second punt attempt and Vierstraete recovered to set Marshall up at the fringe of the red zone. Yet, Marshall couldn’t gain any ground and threw an incompletion on fourth down to turn the ball over.

Marshall stopped Benilde-St. Margaret’s on the opening drive of the second half and Sam Meier quickly got the offense going with runs of 16 and 19 yards to move the offense into the red zone. A few short plays later, Meier ran in a four-yard touchdown to bring the score to 41-0 with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.

With the running clock speeding up the game, it didn’t take much for Marshall to seal the game. JJ Valdovinos came up with a sack for Marshall, and although the Red Knights went on to move the chains, the Tigers still got the ball back and were able to kneel out the final minutes after picking up a series of first downs.

Marshall finishes its regular season at a perfect 8-0 and now awaits seeding for the Section 2AAA tournament. The No. 2 through 7 seeds will play quarterfinal matchups on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the home site of the high seed, and the No. 1 seed will host the winner of the 4-5 matchup on Saturday at 2 p.m. The section championship match is scheduled to be played at Buffalo High School on Oct. 31 at 7 p.m.