Marshall nips WHS girls soccer team, 1-0

WORTHINGTON -- In a game of many opportunities for both teams, the Marshall Tigers got one of theirs to find the mark Friday night in a high school girls soccer game played at Trojan Field.

Danya Estrada Palmer’s goal with 14:27 remaining in the second half broke a scoreless tie and gave the Tigers a 1-0 victory. It was the team’s first win on the 2020 season in five tries. The Trojans fell to 1-4-1 with the setback.

“Our team gave us about 65, 70 minutes of soccer out of 80. They pooped out at the end. We’ve got to be able to play the whole game,” said Trojans head coach Emily Ahlquist. “It’s always nice to have a close game. But it also makes it a little disappointing when you know you could’ve had it, and it was just out of reach.”

Worthington will get another chance against Marshall on Tuesday, in Marshall.

Marshall 1, Worthington 0

Brand new artificial turf at Worthington’s newly-renovated Trojan Field wasn’t enough to get the Trojan girls a win. But they had several opportunities.

In the first half, in fact, there were many scoring opportunities for both teams. Inside the first minute Marshall went on a breakaway and almost scored. Only two minutes later, Estrada Palmer missed a point-blank shot one-on-one with WHS goalkeeper Chantel Peralta.

But only a minute after that, Worthington’s Jesenia Muniz missed on a similar chance. With 21:44 to go in the first half, the Trojan Leidy Chavez had a great breakaway chance but a leaping Marshall goaltender saved from only seven yards from goal.

After the scoreless first half, Marshall finally got on the board with a goal from Estrada Palmer, a junior forward, from about 20 yards away.

The Trojans tried hard to draw even, but in a game where both defenses struggled to keep the ball in front of them, the home team didn’t catch a break. Perhaps the best Worthington opportunity in the game came with less than 11 minutes remaining as Muniz -- on another breakaway -- kicked a beautiful shot to the left side of the MHS net from 18 yards away. It was deflected just enough, however, by the Marshall goalie diving to her right.