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.

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.

Marshall takes great pride in the way its players and coaches performed this year, Marshall head coach Terry Bahlmann said. He added that he felt the Tigers played one of the toughest schedules in the state, so coming out 8-0 is a great reflection of how much work the team has put in, though they still have bigger goals in mind.

“A lot of people didn’t really think that we would go 8-0,” Marshall senior center Eli Weedman said. “[Bahlmann told us that] they made the schedule so everybody would go 4-4, but he wanted us to go 8-0 and we did that tonight.”

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.

“We thought we were a little flat last week [in a 27-10 road win over No. 10 Fergus Falls], so we wanted to come out right away and make a big play in the passing game,” Bahlmann said of the flea flicker. “They covered it well, and Boeck made a heck of a catch there. That sort of got us momentum and we never looked back.”

Kraft finished the night as Marshall’s leading rusher, taking 10 carries for 56 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Andrew Stelter also toted the ball five times for 31 yards while Sam Meier added another five carries for 41 yards, each with a touchdown.

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.

“I just thought, ‘I better get there, I need to get to that end zone,'” Eickhoff said of his thoughts as he returned the interception. “I’m not going to slow down, I’m not letting them catch me, I’m finishing this game.”

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, stutter-stepping his way past one defender and stiff-arming his way through another as he tiptoed into the end zone to make the score 34-0 with two minutes remaining before the half.

“The last short week, you want to make sure you’re mostly ready,” Bahlmann said. “Our defense was excited like they always are, so a lot of different guys made plays. We scored on defense, had a punt block, so everybody contributes in a win like this and our defense showed what sort of dominance they have.”

Turnovers benefited 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.

“I feel like we’re so explosive defensively because we all work hard,” Eickhoff said. “We’re all pursuing the ball, so that allows us to come out as a team and get those big plays.”

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.

Levi Maeyaert completed three of his seven pass attempts for 73 yards and a touchdown. Boeck, Cash Willer and Vierstraete each caught one pass in the game, with Willer’s coming for a 28-yard gain.

Marshall finishes its regular season at a perfect 8-0 and now awaits seeding for the Section 2AAAA tournament. The No. 3 seed will host the No. 6 seed and the No. 4 seed will host the 5 seed at the home sites of the high seeds on Tuesday at 7 p.m.The top two seeds will host the semifinals on Friday at their home site at 7 p.m. The section championship match is scheduled to be played at the home site of the high seed on Oct. 31 at 7 p.m.

“I’m most excited about us keeping it going, putting the pedal on the gas and just keep going, not stopping,” Eickhoff said.

Bahlmann noted that the Tigers had some players get banged up over the last few weeks, so getting to rest the starters in the second half was big for the team, as would be a potential bye.

“Tomorrow night, the coaches vote [on seeding], so I would think we’re the one, but I guess you never know,” Bahlmann said. “I don’t know how they couldn’t vote us the one, but it’s sitting there in the bye, get healthy and start preparing for our next opponent.”