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Nov 21, 2023

A hat trick and beyond

Aug 30, 2023 Photo by Kim Nelson: Marshall midfielder Anna Kuecker heads a ball during the Tigers' 12-0 win over St. James Area in a soccer match in Marshall on Tuesday night. MARSHALL — Hannah Gordon

Aug 30, 2023

Photo by Kim Nelson: Marshall midfielder Anna Kuecker heads a ball during the Tigers' 12-0 win over St. James Area in a soccer match in Marshall on Tuesday night.

MARSHALL — Hannah Gordon scored four goals in the Marshall girls soccer team’s Tuesday night matchup against St. James Area, helping the Tigers to a 12-0 win.

“I think one of the goals for the season is trying to recover the ball in the attacking third once we lose it so that we never have to play in our field,” Marshall head coach Jose Losada Montero said. “We want to be aggressive once we lose the ball. We have this five-second rule, try to recover over there, so then there’s never any threats into our goal.”

The game comes after the Tigers dropped their season-opener to Waseca 2-0 on Saturday. Losada Montero said that he still felt good about the effort in that game because the Tigers have played the Bluejays tighter in each of the last three years.

Gordon scored the second goal of the game before scoring three more in the second half. Her second goal came less than ten minutes after halftime and her third came on a penalty kick. She also had an assist on the day.

“We’re working on keeping possession of the ball and not rushing into it. Sometimes we want to play forward very fast after the first two seconds of getting the ball back, so sometimes we’re so eager to score that we don’t understand that it might take some time to move the ball to find space and create space,” Losada Montero said.

“It’s a 90-minute game. I tell the girls, it’s not basketball, there’s no possession time. You can keep the ball for 90 minutes, there’s no 24-second rule like in the NBA, so that’s the whole idea. Try to keep possession of the ball while you have the ball.”

The margin of victory still doesn’t quite show how well the Tigers controlled the game. They spent nearly the entire time with the ball in the attacking third and hardly let St. James Area get anywhere near the net.

Rylee Jacobson opened the scoring early in the first half to give Marshall a 1-0 lead. She also grabbed an assist later in the game.

Journee Okwar had a pair of goals on the day, one in each half, while Abby Wing and Ella Ross each had a goal and an assist.

Marshall led 5-0 at halftime, courtesy of Ella Ross’ last-minute goal, and carried their momentum strong through the break.

Marshall (1-1) will try to keep its offense flowing on Thursday when they go on the road to face Worthington.

Photo by Kim Nelson: Marshall midfielder Anna Kuecker heads a ball during the Tigers’ 12-0 win over St. James Area in a soccer match in Marshall on Tuesday night.

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