First year Head Coach Donnie Heath and the Marshals won their first game of the season Tuesday at home over Paducah Tilghman. The Marshals scored two goals in the first half which turned out to be enough in the 2-0 win. The first goal was an own goal by Tilghman and the second off the foot of Austin Stockdale with an assist by Keegan McKenty.
“Tilghman forced us to play in a way that we wanted to in a sense of quick tempo, up speed, discipline defensively”, Heath said. “It’s nice to get the win but we obviously have a long way to go before we get to where we want to be.”
Heath said his players went after Tilghman the first 20 minutes focusing on getting the ball out wide so the forwards can run off the ball into the gaps, but felt fatigue might have come into play after that and they lost a little adrenaline while Tilghman made some adjustments.
“We feel like the second half we controlled the game for the most part… just like to finish a couple of those off with the opportunities that we had”, Heath said. “Overall the ball movement was pretty good.”
Stockdale had some good looks in the second half but Tilghman keeper Reese Hutchins did his job in keeping the ball out of the goal. In the game, the Marshals kept the pressure on, out-shooting the Tornadoes 31-5.
The Marshals will play Murray on Thursday at home, under new head coach and former Marshal and Marshall County coach, Jared Rosa. This will be the Tigers season-opener.
“They’ll have a good team”, Heath added. “Last year they were young, but all their players have another year of experience.”
