Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall forward Jasiel Flores shoots the ball during the first half of the Section 2AA boys soccer championship match against Mankato East on Tuesday in New Prague. The top-seeded Cougars defeated the No. 2 Tigers 1-0 in overtime to advance to the state tournament.

NEW PRAGUE — The 80-minute regulation period wasn’t enough to determine a winner in the Section 2AA boys soccer championship between top-seeded Mankato East and the No. 2 Marshall Tigers. Neither team could separate itself as the superior team prior to overtime, but the Cougars came out strong and scored the game-winner in the 83rd minute to secure a 1-0 sudden-death victory.

“We just needed to communicate louder and we needed to stick together more. I think that was our biggest issue tonight, we didn’t play our game the whole time,” Marshall head coach Tony Correa said when asked for his immediate reaction to the loss. “We like to possess the ball, we like to show up for each other, and I think a lot of times these guys like to kick and rush the other team. I think we just didn’t really know how to react enough. We did decent, we just didn’t finish our chances.”

From the moment the overtime period started, Mankato East looked hungry. They quickly worked the ball into Marshall’s attacking third and refused to get out. After goalkeeper Roberto Garcia Lopez made a save and cleared the ball, the Tigers briefly got on the attack but East quickly got the ball back.

On their second trip down the field in overtime, East made the Tigers pay. Carson Stenzel sped down the right side of the field before working his way toward the center and firing off a shot toward the top shelf. Despite a great effort from Garcia Lopez, Stenzel’s shot found the back of the net and sent the Cougar bench storming out on the field to celebrate its state tournament berth.

“We wanted to win obviously. We went into overtime ready to come out hungrier than the other team, and then they came out with the same intensity. We couldn’t get it out of our half in those couple of minutes. It is what it is,” Correa said.

This year’s section championship is the second in a row to go beyond regulation after Worthington defeated Mankato East via penalty kicks, 3-1, after going scoreless in overtime and regulation.

Garcia Lopez made eight saves on the day for Marshall, many of which were anything but routine. Halfway through the second half, he leaped up to make a save on a high shot. He got both hands on the ball and held it tight as he fell backward to the ground, saving it just inches from the goalline.

Correa said he trusts his goalkeeper and backline but that the loss of senior midfielder Jared Hernandez left a void for the Tigers after he went down with a lower-body injury in the section semifinals.

“We needed to fill that role and unfortunately we couldn’t do that,” Correa said, but added that he was still proud of his team’s play. “Defense is our strongest area. I’m just happy for everyone. I think we could have done a better job pressuring up top, that’s where we were lacking a little bit, but defensively we played amazing.”

Defense was the name of the game early on. Neither team registered a shot on goal in the first 20 minutes. It wasn’t until Jasiel Flores fired off a shot from the right side of the goal in the 23rd minute that either goalkeeper was forced to make a save.

Flores played a quality offensive game for Marshall. He was responsible for each of the first two of Marshall’s five shots on goal in the match. He also set up the Tigers’ best scoring opportunity of the night when, in the 77th minute, he weaved his way down the right sideline and into the penalty area before hitting Moo Gay with a centering pass. Yet, the shot went high over the crossbar and the game remained locked in a scoreless tie.

Of the Tigers’ shots on goal, one came in the first half but three came in the final 20 minutes of regulation. Correa credited the shift to the play of the Tigers’ strikers, Moo Gay and Isaiah Argueta.

“We expect them to be beating people 1-v-1. I don’t know why we couldn’t put it in the back of the net either,” Correa said. “It was just taking too long to shoot the ball, I don’t know. At the end of the day, we just didn’t have luck today.”

While Mankato East didn’t have a shot on goal in the first 30 minutes, they were able to earn a series of corner kicks in the first half. Despite the Cougars’ height advantage, Marshall was able to prevent them from getting off any shots on goal until a header in the 31st minute forced Garcia Lopez to make another diving save.

Mankato East played physical but generally not chippy, save for a yellow card to Jhoel Dillon with 40 seconds to play before halftime and a yellow card to Luke Lebens in the 53rd minute. Flores drew both penalties.

Isaiah Argueta was also assessed a yellow card for Marshall in the 88th minute. The penalty gave the Cougars a free kick from about 25 yards out. The shot arced high toward the top left corner of the net but Garcia Lopez made the save to keep the match scoreless.

While East held a possession advantage in the match but Marshall’s defense generally prevented the Cougars from getting quality scoring opportunities. Even when Mankato was able to get a shot off on goal, most of the shots required minimal effort from the keeper.

While Marshall was unable to secure its first-ever state tournament berth in boys or girls soccer with a win on Tuesday, the 2024 season was still a year to remember for the Tigers. They defeated Worthington on the road for the first time ever and defeated them again in the postseason on Thursday to secure their first-ever section championship match appearance.

“Like I told these guys, I wouldn’t lie to them. I wouldn’t tell them they’re a great team if they’re not,” Correa said of his group. “I wouldn’t be here trying to get these guys to do better than the other team if we have to play a different tactic. This year, we really stuck to our game plans, which was trying to possess the ball and control games. I’m just proud of these guys because the core of this group has been together since C-Squad in seventh grade. They’ve stuck together in the summers. They’ve played together. The chemistry has been there.”

Rebuilding after the loss of this group’s seniors — Garcia Lopez, Gay, Flores, Hernandez, Eli Pederson, Mason Graven, Eh Ray Htoo, Alex Lim-Bjork Abubakar Hassan, Salman Yasin and Antoni Suar Gutierrez — won’t be easy, but Correa said the team has talent coming up and just needs to find its roles.

Correa also described the seniors as “some of the most coachable kids that [he’s] ever had as a coach,” something he attributes to their respect for their teammates and willingness to put in work for the betterment of the team.

“If people just do whatever they want, well obviously we’re not going to be a good team. I’m just proud of these guys for training up every day,” Correa said.

Marshall finishes its season with a record of 15-3-2, a step up from the 12-5 mark the Tigers finished with each of the last two seasons and a big step up from the 7-9 record they put together in 2021.