The Marshals defeated Graves County 8-1 Thursday, a team that knocked them out of further post-season play in the first game of the district tournament last season and a memory of an 8-1 defeat by the Eagles in the 2015 season when this year’s seniors were just freshman.
“The eight (goals) we’re tickled about, but we would have liked to keep them off the board”, Coach Donnie Heath said. “Overall we’re happy, we’re excited. It’s a nice night for us. Tonight we had to play a little different than we normally play.” Heath said referring to the Eagles three in the back formation.
Heath added that they couldn’t have asked for more from their defenders in the win holding the two good Graves County forwards to just one goal. That one goal coming from senior Alex Arellano after the Eagles trailed the Marshals 3-0 on goals by Bryson Penn on a penalty kick inside the box in the opening few seconds, another free kick by Penn following a foul on Daniel Gardner and a goal by Jonathan Roberts.
Two more first half goals came off the foot of Penn for a 5-1 halftime lead. Penn opened the second half for Marshals the way he closed out the first, scoring two goals for a total of six in the game and 41 on the season. Gardner added the Marshals eighth goal for the 8-1 win.
The Marshals had 21 shots, 16 of them on goal and eight corners in the win and improve to 14-3. The Eagles had seven shots, four on goal and one corner and fall to 7-6 having lost their last four straight games.
