Marshall Men's Soccer Plays Liberty to 2-2 draw (Sunday 9/7)

Corey Bodden

            Marshall men’s soccer scored its first goals of the season, but it was not enough to secure a victory on Sunday against the Liberty Flames as the game ended in a 2-2 tie.

            Liberty (2-0-1) struck first at Hoops Family Field at Veterans Memorial Soccer Complex in the 27th minute with a goal by Bay Kurtz after an assist from Blessing Tahuona.

            Marshall (0-2-1) answered a few minutes later. A handball by Liberty near its own goal in the 32nd minute led to a penalty kick for Ryan Forde, sophomore from London, England. Forde hit the back of the net to score Marshall’s first goal of the season and tied the game at 1-1.

            “I think we broke the ice today,” Head Coach Bob Gray said of the first goals of the year. “It was like getting the monkey off your back to get a goal. We just have to be a little more efficient when we get into the final third and especially when we get into the box.”

            Troy Reeves took the ball himself and scored to give Liberty the lead in the 54th minute. Liberty seemed to be in control of the match until Scott Doney, freshman from Tauranga, New Zealand, received a pass from Matt Freeman, junior from Irmo, S.C., in the 6-yard box and scored the equalizer in the 84th minute.

            With the teams tied 2-2 sudden death overtime decided the match with a 10-minute period followed by another if necessary.

            Marshall controlled both overtime periods getting off five shots compared to zero from the Flames. Unfortunately for Marshall and the Thundering Herd faithful among the 414 spectators none of the five shots slipped past Liberty goalkeeper Scott Sutarik and Marshall was unable to secure its first victory of the season.

            “I think we just need to keep working. We need to keep practicing,” Forde said of what the team needs to do to win a match. “We’re still a relatively young team, mostly juniors and freshmen, so (we) still got a lot to learn. If we keep practicing together hopefully things will gel.”

            Marshall outshot Liberty 20-9 and secured more corner kicks 6-5 despite Gray changing the line-up multiple times.

            “They’re (Liberty) one of the top teams in the Big South (Conference), but I thought it was our game to win today,” Gray said. “We need a lot of work. We’re young.  We’re really trying to find the right combinations out there. We found out a little bit about ourselves today.”

            Gray and the Thundering Herd will look for its first victory on Monday Sept. 15 as Appalachian State (0-3-1) invades Hoops Family Field.

            “We’ve got seven days off, which is a blessing,” Gray said. “App. State will be a good test for us, but with the seven days of work that we have maybe we can do some of the right things that’ll produce a victory for us.”