DRAFFENVILLE – Dawson Jolley put the Marshals on the board, just over five minutes into the game in the Marshals 2nd District contest against Murray Tuesday and five minutes later, Austin Stockdale made it a 2-0 game. Zach Flener scored at 29:05 in the first half to get the Tigers on the board, trailing 2-1.
Murray’s Nick Bokeno with a penalty kick just inside midfield went right into keeper Keagin Watkins hands, that followed by some good looks by Jolley and Stockdale that missed the mark.
A collison between Jolley and Caleb Rogers resulted in yellow cards for the two player in the 2nd half, two of four that were handed out in the game that had moments of getting out of the officials hands. A good hard kick by Jolley just missed and a penalty kick taken by Seth Stader with under six minutes remaining was saved by Murray’s keeper.
A final shot by Flener for the Tigers was tipped by Watkins to send the ball wide left. The Marshals put the game away with 2:42 to go on a goal that began on the foot of Jolley to Stockdale who crossed it to Caleb McNeely for the goal and a 3-1 final score.
The Marshals had 23 shots, 11 on goal and 7 corner kicks. Murray had 4 shots, 3 on goal and 2 corners while each team received 2 yellow cards a piece.
Coach Andrew Pagel was happy with the Marshals time of possession and thought his defense played stellar, not to blame for Murray’s one goal.
“We’re a pretty efficient team and we play hard and sometimes we’re so emotional it can get us in a little bit of trouble”, Pagel said. “I don’t know if I’ve had a team play this hard for a long time, with this much heart, to make up for any deficiencies we might have.”
Marshals team captain Daniel Lepore said he thought they did a good job covering Flener and Abongo Adongo in the win saying, “We did our best to shut them down and I think our defense did a good job tonight.”
The Marshals are 3-1 in district play with their only loss coming from Graves County, a loss they will have the chance to avenge when they meet the Eagles next Thursday. Up next, the Marshals will play Hopkinsville (9-2) on Thursday at the Field of Champions.
