Photo by Jake McNeill Marshall midfielder Jasiel Flores (left) dribbles around a defender during the first half of a boys soccer game against Hutchinson in Marshall Saturday afternoon. Marshall won the game 9-0.
MARSHALL — Jasiel Flores had a goal and two assists in the first 15 minutes of the Marshall boys soccer team’s Saturday afternoon game against Hutchinson. The midfielder finished the game with four points, helping Marshall to a 7-0 victory in the battle of the Tigers.
“He is fast, a team player and always looking for a goal,” Marshall head coach Tony Correa praised Flores’ ability to serve as a spark for the offense. “He doesn’t care who scores the goals, as long as we share the joy of the goals, win and work on our mistakes.”
In the second minute of play, Flores took the ball down the right sideline and fired a shot from close range. The ball deflected off the Hutchinson goalkeeper, but Marshall’s feint over the deflected ball gave Jared Hernandez a clear view of the opening goal.
Hernandez’s goal was his second of the season, having also scored two minutes into Marshall’s 4-1 home loss to Sioux Falls Christian on Friday. While the Tigers were unable to capitalize on Hernandez’s early offense in the opener, they were able to do so on Saturday.
“I told the boys to work on their possession time and just feel comfortable against strong teams,” Correa said he wanted to thank Hutchinson for traveling to Marshall for the teams’ first head-to-head meeting. “Any pressure is good pressure and we’ve been working on everyone moving the ball and not caring who shoots the ball. To win, the team has to pull together and we wanted to make up for our mistakes from last night because I think we played well last night too… (but) we ran out of stamina. Today our stamina was quiet because we had time on the ball and we weren’t chasing it.”
Isaiah Argueta scored four goals on the day, scoring his first goal in the 32nd minute after he played the ball down the left sideline, dribbled into the box and tricked the goalkeeper by pretending to go into the box before firing to the other side of the goal to give Marshall a 6-0 lead.
Argueta also scored two more goals from transition late in the second half, firing two rockets into the top corner in the 54th and 58th minutes before scoring a final safety goal in the dying moments of the game.
“We just worked on good plays. We don’t just have to exploit their weaknesses, we have to work on our own weaknesses and the strengths only come from working together.” said Correa.
In the 13th minute, Flores provided another assist, this time to Sam Foster, who made it 2-0. Flores had several good chances to score throughout the game, but he finally got a penalty in the 15th minute, beating the goalkeeper and firing into the bottom left corner of the net, giving Marshall a 3-0 lead.
Roberto Garcia Lopez remained goalless as the Tigers’ goalkeeper that day.
Marshall dominated possession from start to finish. Marshall was in the attacking third early and often, rarely letting the Tigers get possession. When Hutchinson got the ball, they couldn’t keep Marshall on defense for long.
Flores also scored the Tigers’ first goal of the second half when he received the ball in the box, broke laterally through the defense and then put the ball on the post in the 43rd minute, giving Marshall a 7-0 lead.
Moo Gay finished last season as Minnesota State’s leading scorer and found his rhythm again on Saturday, scoring his first goal of the year when Hernandez found Gay in the middle to give Marshall a 4-0 lead in the 21st minute.
Less than five minutes later, Gay received a pass from Coby Guenther on the edge of the box, dribbled around the defenders and then shot the ball into the top right corner of the net, giving the Tigers a 5-0 lead.
Marshall improves its season record to 1-1 with the win and will hit the road to face Waseca tonight at 7 p.m.
“Today was great for us because we have two big away games ahead of us (against Waseca and St. Peter). So we have to be prepared for the tough teams,” Correa said he wanted to praise Hutchinson for her team’s performance, but also wanted his team to be ready for the sectional playoffs at the end of the year against teams like Waseca, Worthington and New Ulm.
