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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – Close games are nothing new in the Wisconsin Valley Conference this season, and Tuesday’s boys soccer matchup between Marshfield and Wausau West was no different.
Nick Raasch scored two minutes into the second half for the game’s only goal as West pulled out a 1-0 victory at Griese Park.
The Tigers, who had split a pair of one-goal conference games last week, move to 6-3-1 overall and 3-2-1 in the WVC, falling out of first place. Wausau West improves to 5-1-1 and 4-1 in conference play, pushing one point ahead of Marshfield in the standings.
“They (West) are a young team, but boy, they’re good,” Marshfield coach Steve McCann said. “They move well, they are fast. They were to the ball and made nice target plays.”
Marshfield’s best scoring opportunity came in the 60th minute when Dawson Tysver had a header off a perfect corner kick from Kade McManus. West goalkeeper Noah Knezic managed to tip the ball and it slammed against the crossbar, bounding back into play.
Other than that, the Tigers were able to pressure the goal, especially in the final 3 minutes, but were turned away each time.
Marshfield has a bye from Wisconsin Valley play on Thursday and will play a pair of nonconference road games at New Richmond on Friday and at River Falls on Saturday.
McCann said the Tigers have been solid offensively through the first half of the season.
“Overall our attack has been good, we’ve been placing nice off the wins, through the middle we have our forwards making nice runs,” McCann said. “We’ve got a good group of midfielders. We have the most shots on goal in the conference halfway through the season. We just have to tighten up our defense a little bit. I think if we mark up a little bit better, we’ll be right on.”
Warriors 1, Tigers 0
Wausau West 0 1 – 1
Marshfield 0 0 – 0
Second half: 1. WW, Nick Raasch (Luke Bailey), 47:00.
Total shots: Wausau West 11; Marshfield 15.
Shots on goal: Wausau West 5; Marshfield 8.
Corner kicks: Wausau West 3; Marshfield 5.
Saves: WW, Noah Knezic 8; M, Tommy Olson 4.
Records: Wausau West 5-1-1, 4-1 Wisconsin Valley Conference; Marshfield 6-3-1, 3-2-1 WVC.