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ALTON – The Marquette Catholic High School girls soccer team boosted their season record to 8-3-2 after a 4-0 victory over Breese Central (6-4) Monday afternoon (April 18). It was the Explorers’ second win in a row after beating Farmington by the same score line back on Saturday.
It was a cold and windy afternoon at Gordon Moore Park with gusts up to 25 mph and temps in the mid 40’s, but just another day for Marquette.
With the weather, and the long Easter holiday, Marquette got off to a bit of a slow start to their standards, but they eventually got things up and going.
In the 18th minute freshman midfielder Maya Stephan scored her first goal of the season and broke the tie to make it 1-0.
Three minutes later a familiar name got back on the scoresheet. That would be freshman forward Ella Anselm. She doubled the lead and scored her 13th of the season which leads her team. She had a good chance of netting another in the final minute of the half but her shot just barely fizzed past the far post.
The score remained 2-0 headed into the halftime break.
Breese Central seemed to come out of the break determined, but Marquette stood tall. Four minutes into the half the Explorers were rewarded a free kick.
Freshman midfielder Chloe Roberts stepped up to take and buried it in the bottom left corner from about 25 yards out to make it a 3-0 ballgame. It was her fourth goal of the season to go along with two assists.
Finally, in the 53rd minute, Marquette put the final nail in the coffin when junior midfielder Aela Scruggs made it four. She beat her defender and had a half break before her shot went off the post and in for her second of the year.
Marquette head coach Brian Hoener was happy about having a plethora of offense.
“I think today is a perfect example, we had four different goal scorers. When you start to spread the ball around get some different people being dangerous it makes you hard to defend,” Hoener said postgame.
“I’m happy with the shutout, but also thrilled to get several different people on the score sheet and add some depth to our scoring.”
After this game the Explorers only have six regularly scheduled games before postseason meaning every match means a little more now.
“The days of the calendar are moving by pretty quickly,” Hoener said. “There’s not that much season left, so every game is just a little bit more important, and the results are a little more important.”
After gaining that four-goal lead it would have been easy for Marquette to sit back and relax, but they stayed the course to pick up their fifth shutout of the season. For junior goalie Hannah Marshall it was her eighth win of the season.
“I thought we did a good job coming out and really taking control of the game and never really letting them have an opportunity to get back in it,” Hoener added.
The Explorers have five straight away games coming up in the next couple of weeks. They’ll be back in action on Thursday (April 20) at Freeburg. That game starts at 6 p.m.
Marquette’s final home game of the season, which means Senior Day, is on Tuesday May 3rd at 6 p.m. against Granite City.
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