ALTON – No matter the two teams’ records heading into the Alton City Championship, as it’s now been dubbed, the game will be played close.
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Although the scoreline doesn’t reflect it, that was still the case Friday night at Public School Stadium as the Redbirds and Explorers duked it out in a rivalry girls soccer game.
Marquette won by a score of 3-0, improving to 8-5-2 on the season. It was Marquette’s sixth shutout win so far.
“Sometimes this game isn’t really pretty because it’s a rivalry game, so there’s a lot of emotions,” Marquette head coach Brian Hoener said. “I don’t think we played our best. I knew we might let the emotion take over the thought process, and I think that’s kind of what happened at times. But we made enough winning plays and started off on a good foot with a great finish from Alivia.”
Alivia Noss broke the tie in the 14th minute when her shot soared into the top right corner to make it 1-0. Delaney Ortmann was credited with the assist.
Ortmann doubled the lead in the 30th minute when she pounced on a loose ball that Alton failed to clear out, taking a touch, and shooting it bottom right corner to make it 2-0.
The Explorers owned much of the first 40 minutes, but Alton woke up for the second half.
The Redbirds won a free kick in the 60th minute, but the attempt was just high right, one of their better chances of the game.
The Explorers made it 3-0 in the 68th minute when Alex Stephan cleaned up at the back post from a corner kick.
“We didn’t really give [Alton] many opportunities,” Hoener said. “And when you don’t give the team many opportunities, eventually, some things will go your way, and we found one in the second half to put the game away from the corner kick.”
Stephan leads the team in scoring. It was her ninth goal of the season. Jessica Eales earned the shutout in net.
After starting the season off to a 1-3-1 start, Marquette has won five of its last six games to improve to 8-5-2 as the regular season winds down.
“I’m happy they got the result,” Hoener said. “Would I have liked to have played a little bit better? Sure, but at the end of the day, we understand that this is a rivalry game.”
The Redbirds fall to 1-12. They finished 3-19 a season ago.
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