GODFREY – The Marquette Catholic girls soccer team hosted the Columbia Eagles Tuesday evening at Glazebrook Park.
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Columbia improved to 4-1 on the young season after a 2-0 win. Marquette falls to 1-1-2.
After a scoreless first half, the Eagles found the back of the net twice, both from corner kicks in the final 40 minutes.
Reese Woelfel found a bouncing ball inside the six-yard box from a corner kick that the Marquette defense struggled to clear. Explorers keeper Jessica Eales made a few back-to-back close-range saves, but the ball found its way to Woelfel, who put it home in the 48th minute.
Ava Schmidt doubled the lead in the 65th minute to make it to the final of 2-0.
The Explorers opened the season with three games in the Metro Cup. They tied Murphysboro 0-0 to start off, beat Breese Central 3-0, and then lost to Gibault 1-0.
Tuesday was the third time out of four games that Marquette was shut out.
“We’re going to have to get better offensively,” Marquette head coach Brian Hoener said, “but tonight what I liked, I think we competed really hard. We stuck to the game plan, made it difficult on them which is what we were trying to do. We made some mistakes in the backfield in the second half, mistakes that I think are correctable, which is good.”
Even though it wasn’t a better result, Hoener knew his team played a hard, full 80 minutes.
“What I really like is our compete level tonight,” Hoener said. “Columbia’s a really good team, and we knew it would be a challenge; we play a tough schedule for this particular reason, but I thought our girls responded to the challenge well.”
With just four games under their belt, the Explorers open Gateway Metro Conference action in just the season’s second week. They travel to Glen Carbon this afternoon, March 26, to take on Father McGivney.
The Griffins are 4-0 and have yet to concede a goal this season. The Explorers have lost three straight to McGivney, the last win on March 30, 2023.
“It doesn’t get any easier,” Hoener said. “McGivney’s a tough contest, but that’s what we do.”
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