This story is sponsored by the Marshfield Tiger Booster Club
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – While Marshfield dominated the ball during much of its Wisconsin Valley Conference boys soccer game against Wausau East on Thursday, scoring did not come easy.
Marshfield’s Hunter McManus scored 15 minutes into the second half to even the score after an early own-goal by Wausau East put the Tigers behind.
Time after time, the Tigers put the ball into prime scoring position but couldn’t get another past East goalkeeper Vince Joliffe and had to settle for a 1-1 tie at Griese Park.
Marshfield moved to 2-3-1 overall and 0-1-1 in the WVC, earning its first conference point of the season. East is now 2-1-1 and 1-0-1 in the Valley.
“There was a five-minute stretch in the beginning and a 10-minute stretch in the middle, but otherwise I thought we dominated the play,” Marshfield coach Steve McCann said. “Against West (a 2-1 loss to Wausau West on Tuesday), we played a little bit slow, so we worked on playing a faster speed, swinging the ball fast. I thought we looked dangerous on our attack, we had a lot of great chances, we just couldn’t finish it. That’s been our problem so far this year.”
Marshfield goalkeeper Trevyn Tham wasn’t very busy, making just two saves, but the biggest came with 9:30 remaining as he stymied an East attempt to take the lead.
Marshfield allowed the own-goal 4:35 into the game and had numerous chances to score in the first half, but never really got a strong shot on goal.
McManus finally broke up East’s shutout 15:01 into the second half when he broke free from the defense and put home an overhead pass from Ryan Hayes as Joliffe came out of the box to try to get the ball.
From there, Marshfield failed to take advantage of a number of open opportunities, twice shooting over the top of the crossbar.
“We’ve played some really strong teams,” McCann said. “We’ve learned some things from those games and we’ve adjusted and made the changes we want. This is a really coachable group of kids and I think there are good things in the future for this squad.”
Marshfield is back in action Tuesday with a WVC match at Merrill at 5 p.m.
Tigers 1, Lumberjacks 1
Wausau East 1 0 – 1
Marshfield 0 1 – 1
First half: 1. WE, own goal, 4:35.
Second half: 2. M, Hunter McManus (Ryan Hayes), 60:01.
Saves: WE, Vince Jolliffe 9; M, Trevyn Tham 2.
Records: Wausau East 2-1-1, 1-0-1 Wisconsin Valley Conference; Marshfield 2-3-1, 0-1-1 WVC.