Jake McNeil Photo: Marshall forward Jasiel Flores shoots the ball during the first half of the Section 2AA boys soccer championship game against Mankato East on Tuesday in New Prague. The top-seeded Cougars defeated the second-seeded Tigers 1-0 in overtime to advance to the state tournament.
NEW PRAGUE — Eighty minutes of regulation time wasn’t enough to decide a winner in Round 2 of the AA Boys Soccer Championship between top-seeded Mankato East and second-place Marshall Tigers. Neither team was able to pull away as the dominant team until overtime, but the Cougars continued to perform well and scored the winning goal in the 83rd minute for a 1-0 sudden death victory.
“We needed to communicate more loudly, we needed to come together more. I think that was our biggest problem tonight, we just weren’t playing our game the whole time.” Marshall head coach Tony Correa said when asked about his immediate reaction to the loss. “We like to keep the ball, we like to appeal to each other, and I think they like to kick and rush the other team a lot of times. We just I think we just didn’t know how to react enough. We had a decent performance, but we just didn’t take advantage of our chances.”
From the moment overtime started, Mankato East looked hungry. They immediately got the ball into Marshall’s attacking third and refused to get out of there. The Tigers briefly went on the attack after goaltender Roberto Garcia-Lopez made a save and cleared the ball, but East quickly regained the ball.
In the second game in overtime, East made the Tigers pay. Carson Stenzel sprinted down the right side of the field, then made his way to the middle and fired a shot toward the top. Despite a great shot by Garcia-Lopez, Stenzel’s shot found the back of the net and the Cougar bench rushed onto the field to celebrate making it to the state tournament.
“We obviously wanted to win. We went into overtime prepared to go into the game hungrier than the other teams, but they came into the game with the same intensity. Those numbers. We couldn’t get out of our own half in minutes. That’s the reality.” Correa said.
This year’s section championship was the second consecutive year that Worthington went beyond regulation, after going scoreless in overtime and regulation, defeating Mankato East 3-1 in a penalty shootout.
Garcia-Lopez made eight saves for Marshall on the day, many of which were non-routine. Midway through the second half, he jumped up to save a high shot. He grabbed the ball with both hands and held on tightly as he fell backwards to the ground, saving the ball just inches from the goal line.
Correa said he trusts his goaltender and backline, but there was a hole left for the Tigers when senior midfielder Jared Hernandez went down with a lower-body injury in the sectional semifinal.
“We needed to play that role, and unfortunately we weren’t able to do that.” Correa said, but added that he was still proud of the team’s play. “Defense is our strongest area, so I’m just happy for everyone. I think we could have done better in terms of pressure up top, and we were lacking a little bit there, but defensively we played great.”
In the early days, defense was the name of the game. Neither team registered a shot on goal in the first 20 minutes. Either goalie was forced to make a save until Jasiel Flores took a shot from the right side of the goal in the 23rd minute.
Flores played a quality offensive game for Marshall. Of Marshall’s five shots on goal in the game, he took the first two. He also created the Tigers’ best scoring opportunity of the night in the 77th minute when he raced down the right sideline into the penalty area and hit Moo Gay with a centering pass. However, the shot went over the crossbar and the match remained scoreless.
One of the Tigers’ shots on goal came in the first half, but three came in the final 20 minutes of regulation. Correa acknowledged changes in the play of Tigers strikers Mu Gay and Isaiah Argueta.
“We expect them to beat people one-on-one. I don’t know why they couldn’t put it in the back of the net.” Correa said. “I just took too long to shoot the ball, I don’t know. At the end of the day, I just wasn’t lucky today.”
Mankato East didn’t get a shot on goal in the first 30 minutes, but was able to get back-to-back corner kicks in the first half. Despite the Cougars’ height advantage, Marshall was able to prevent shots on goal until the 31st minute header forced a diving save from Garcia Lopez.
Mankato East played physical but generally wasn’t scratchy, save for a yellow card for Joel Dillon with 40 seconds left before halftime and a yellow card for Luke Ravens in the 53rd minute. Flores drew both penalties.
Isaiah Argueta was also given a yellow card against Martial in the 88th minute. The penalty gave the Cougars a free kick from approximately 25 yards out. The shot arced high into the top left corner of the goal, but García López made a save and the game ended in a scoreless game.
Although East held the possession advantage in the game, Marshall’s defense generally prevented the Cougars from getting quality scoring opportunities. Even when Mankato was able to get shots on goal, most shots required minimal effort from the keeper.
Although Marshall missed out on Tuesday’s win and the first state tournament berth in boys and girls soccer history, the 2024 season remains a year to remember for the Tigers. They defeated Worthington on the road for the first time and again in the postseason on Thursday, securing their first-ever sectional championship match appearance.
“Like I told them, I won’t lie to them. If they’re not a great team, I won’t tell them they’re a great team.” Correa said of his group: “If we have to use a different tactic, I’m not going to be here trying to make them do better than the other team. This year, the game is to keep the ball and control the game. We stuck to the plan. The core of this group has been together since the seventh grade C-Squad, so I’m proud of them. They’ve been together all summer. There was a chemical reaction.”
The seniors in this group (Garcia López, Gay, Flores, Hernandez, Eli Pederson, Mason Graven, Ai Lei Thu, Alex Lim-Bjork Abubakar Hassan, Salman Yassin, Antoni Suar Gutierrez) It won’t be easy to rebuild after losing Correa, but the team is full of talent, so he just needs to find his role.
Correa also praised his seniors. “They’re some of the easiest kids (he) has ever coached.” He believes it comes down to their respect for their teammates and their willingness to work for the betterment of the team.
“Obviously we can’t be a good team if people just do what they want to do. I’m proud of them for training every day.” Correa said.
Marshall finished the season with a 15-3-2 record, a step up from the 12-5 record the Tigers finished in each of the past two seasons and the 7-9 record they compiled in 2021. has made great progress.
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