This story is sponsored by: The University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
FOND DU LAC – The Marshfield boys soccer team survived a 3-hour storm delay to win its sixth straight game, but fell short in the championship game of the Fond du Lac Challenge, losing in a penalty-kick shootout to Kettle Moraine Lutheran on Saturday.
Marshfield scored on an own goal by Manitowoc 12:12 into the semifinal game before there was a 3-hour delay due to a thunderstorm, stopping play at the 16-minute mark.
After play resumed, Matt McCann added a goal for the Tigers in the second half and Marshfield went on to a 2-0 win to advance to the championship game.
Austin Gilbert scored on a penalty kick at the 19:54 mark and Griffin Hoerchner knotted the score for Kettle Moraine Lutheran 10 minutes later.
The score remained 1-1 at the end of regulation and the tournament title was decided by a PK shootout. Kettle Moraine Lutheran finally found the net on the seventh try by the two teams and goalkeeper Scott Jeske turned away a fourth Marshfield shot to end the game.
The two games decided by shootouts officially go down as ties and the Tigers are now 6-2-2 on the season after finishing just 6-15-2 last year. The strong start has coach Ron Todryk optimistic for what the rest of the season holds.
“The kids really put out a gutsy performance in the championship game,” Todryk said. “We were without two guys due to injury and four starters were out altogether. It was nice to see kids step up.”
Todryk pointed to the play of Austin Kopp, Nathan Law, Alex Babinski and Brad Cherney – players that saw increased playing time over the weekend.
“We ended up second in a pretty decent tournament,” Todryk said. “We only had 14 players going, so we kind of ran out of gas.”
Marshfield plays at Stevens Point on Thursday in a battle of the two teams tied atop the Wisconsin Valley Conference standings.