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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield girls soccer team continues to come close, but never seems to be able to knock off the top teams in the Wisconsin Valley Conference.
The Tigers had second-place Wisconsin Rapids on the ropes for much of Tuesday’s game at Griese Park, but the Raiders scored a late goal and added another with 42 seconds left in overtime to beat Marshfield 3-2.
Rapids improves to 6-5-2 overall and 4-1-1 in the Valley, while Marshfield falls to 5-4-1 and 2-4 in conference.
“All of the teams, I swear we play even with them and in the last minute they have an opportunity and they score,” Marshfield junior Alison Gruen said. “We have a ton of opportunities and never finish them. We have just as many opportunities as they do and they just take advantage of them more than we do. If we take advantage of all the passes we have in the middle and one-on-ones, then we can beat all of the teams. We have a chance against every single team we lost to.”
MacKenzie Lysne scored with 6:14 remaining in regulation to force overtime, and Morgan Elzinga hit the game-winner at 89:18 to give the Raiders the victory.
Marshfield opens up the second half of the Wisconsin Valley Conference season Thursday at Wausau West.
Gruen scored just 1:52 into the game to give Marshfield an early 1-0 lead.
The advantage held through the rest of the first half as Marshfield goalkeeper Jala Zahn made a diving stop on a penalty kick just five seconds before halftime.
“I scored the goal, but it comes from all the passes strung together,” Gruen said. “We had really good momentum in the first half – we had the wind with us. I think we outplayed them more than we expected we would and I knew it would be a hard game.”
Rapids finally broke past Zahn when freshman Megan Charette scored off an assist from Elzinga 19:53 into the second half to tie the game.
Marshfield quickly regained the lead as Gruen scored off an assist from Darian Molter just 1:32 later, but the Tigers couldn’t get any more.
“Our midfield play has really stepped up,” Marshfield coach Steve Lindner said. “(Junior) Maddie Smith was marking up on Elzinga and did an outstanding job on her. She basically took her out of the game until she scored the game-winner.
“It was a great game and Rapids is awesome competition. We’re trying to bring our program up to their level.”
Raiders 3, Tigers 2 (OT)
Wisconsin Rapids 0 2 1 – 3
Marshfield 1 1 0 – 2
First half: 1. M, Alison Gruen (Darian Molter), 1:52.
Second half: 2. WR, Megan Charette (Morgan Elzinga), 59:53; 3. M, Gruen (Molter), 61:25; 4. WR, MacKenzie Lysne, 73:46.
Overtime: 4. WR, Elzinga, 89:18.
Records: Wisconsin Rapids 6-5-2, 4-1-1 Wisconsin Valley Conference; Marshfield 5-4-1, 2-4 WVC.