Marshall County’s Lady Marshals will be aiming for their fourth straight Second District Championship and 20th in program history when they take the field Thursday at 5:30 against Murray. They advanced to the title game with their 4-0 win over Calloway County on Wednesday. Murray beat top seeded Graves County 4-3 to advance, in a game that went into overtime and penalty kicks.
Wednesday’s win marked the 200th for Head Coach Michael Boone who is in his 14th season with the Lady Marshals. To date, Boone has led the program to nine District Championships and eight Regional Championships along with four first-round, two Elite Eight and one Final Four appearance in the KHSAA Girl’s State Soccer Tournament. His current record is 200-82-28.
A physical game for 80 minutes, the Lady Marshals controlled possession a large percentage of the game. The majority of time in the first half, the Lady Marshals were attacking, but the opportunities to score were thwarted by the Lady Laker defenders along with saves by goalkeeper Sunny Clark.
Kelsey Crass had a shot on goal, Mia Teague and Whitley Watwood both took foul kicks and two great looks came from Kinsley Perry – one over the top and the second hitting off the right post. A scoreless first half was all but in the books before a foul in the box on Calloway County set up a Teague penalty kick for a 1-0 halftime lead.
Kallen Fuller just missed to the right to open second half scoring attempts followed by a shot by Teague that was saved by Clark. Just under 23 minutes in the second half, Crass found the net on an assist by Hope Howard for a 2-0 game and five minutes later, scored her second goal of the game on a beautiful pass from Fuller and it was 3-0 Lady Marshals.
The final goal was knocked in off a Calloway County player for an own goal after a Marshall County cross for the 4-0 shut out.
Parker Perry had five nice saves in the goal for the Lady Marshals. They out-shot Calloway County 23-8, keeping Clark busy in the goal who had 12 saves.
The Lady Marshals opened the 2020 season with a 2-0 win over Murray who they will meet in tonight’s title game, but after an 0-3 start, the Lady Tigers have gone 8-2-2. This will be the first trip back the championship game for Murray since the 2017 season when they beat Marshall County 2-1 in penalty kicks.
