Tigers win second in a row to climb back to .500 mark

By Paul Lecker

Sports Reporter

MARSHFIELD — If the Marshfield boys soccer team could find a way to bottle up its offensive production from Tuesday’s game and use it for the remaining month of the season, it would definitely do it.

The Tigers scored four goals in a 14-minute stretch of the first half and put in three more shots in the opening 3:10 of the second half to blow past Merrill 10-3 in a Wisconsin Valley Conference matchup at Griese Park.

Alec Hinson scored early for the Tigers, and after Austin Burgener tied it for Merrill, Luke McCann scored twice, and Hunter McManus added another to help Marshfield open up a 4-1 lead.

Grant Urban scored at the 40-minute mark for the Tigers, who led 5-2 at the half.

The strong play continued after halftime as McManus scored 1:09 into the half, and Collin Nikolai scored twice in less than a minute to make it 8-2.

“That was good soccer for 10 minutes. If we could pull it together for 90, we’d be in really good shape,” Marshfield coach Steve McCann said. “Smooth, on-the-ground passes, some hustle to the net — that’s what we need, hustle to the net, full speed sprint. Sometimes we are too lackadaisical. That was good energy.

“At halftime we talked about hitting better crosses, and right away in the second half we did that.”

Quentin Buttke and Kade McManus added goals for the Tigers to finish their scoring.

Marshfield outshot Merrill 22-5 as it dominated the ball for much of the game. The Tigers have climbed back to the .500 mark, improving to 4-4 overall and 2-2 in the Valley with a big game at D.C. Everest on Thursday looming.

“There’s so much potential. You can see that. You just have to do it,” Steve McCann said. “With D.C. Everest coming up and Ashwaubenon on Saturday, it will be a good opportunity for us to see where we stack up. For the last 30 minutes, I had pretty much all my nonstarters in tonight, so it was a good opportunity for them to play.”

(Hub City Times Sports Reporter Paul Lecker is also the publisher of MarshfieldAreaSports.com.)

Tigers 10, Bluejays 3

Merrill 2 1 – 3

Marshfield 5 5 – 10

First half: 1. MAR, Alec Hinson (Hunter McManus), 12:40; 2. MER, Austin Burgener, 17:53; 3. MAR, Luke McCann, 25:41; 4. MAR, McCann (Hinson), 26:01; 5. MAR, H. McManus (Klaus Friedli), 32:14; 6. MAR, Grant Urban, 40:00; 7. MER, Zach Weix (Hunter Wallace), 42:28.

Second half: 8. MAR, H. McManus (Collin Nikolai), 46:09; 9. MAR, Nikolai, 47:18; 10. MAR, Nikolai (Hinson), 48:10; 11. MAR, Quentin Buttke, 65:59; 12. MAR, Kade McManus, 74:27; 13. MER, Burgener, 87:51.

Shots on goal: Merrill 5; Marshfield 22.

Corner kicks: Merrill 3; Marshfield 8.

Saves: MER, Mason Gebert 13, (No name provided) 3; MAR, Jared Klein 2, Matthew Pahl 3.

Records: Merrill 1-3, 0-3 Wisconsin Valley Conference; Marshfield 4-4, 2-2 WVC.