Marshall traveled to Jackson Northwest High School Wednesday and came away with a 1-0 victory over Jackson (Parma) Western High School in an MHSAA District Semifinal game to advance to Friday’s final against Mason.
The game was originally scheduled for Tuesday night at Mason High School and although serious weather never arrived, the constant rumble of thunder in the distance caused kick-off to be delayed over two hours before the contest was officially postponed. The make-up game was moved to Jackson Northwest to be closer to Marshall so seniors could make it back from the game in time for Baccalaureate ceremonies in Marshall.
In the first half, with Marshall attacking into a stiff breeze, they created the better of the chances, but were unable to solve the Western goalkeeper. Western had a little more territorial play, in large part due to the wind, but struggled to threaten the Marshall goal with anything other than speculative long-range efforts and the game went into halftime tied at 0-0.
In the second half, Marshall came out fired up and was able to take the lead early. Less than a minute into the half, Stefanie DeLong played a ball up the wing to Addie Waito. Waito cut back on her defender to make a little space and whipped a great ball into the middle. The ball bounced once and was met in-stride by Ollie Rozell, who had cut inside her defender, and Rozell emphatically one timed the ball into the roof of the net to give the Redhawks a 1-0 lead. The goal was the ninth of the year for the sophomore. The final score was Marshall 1 – Western 0.
Aly Zulewski went the distance in goal for Marshall. She inspired confidence with her clean, confident handling on some Western large range efforts, especially in the first half when Westen had the wind advantage. She earned the shutout which is her sixth on the season and her fourth consecutive shutout.
With the win, Marshall improves to 10-3-4 and is now unbeaten in their last 13 games (9-0-4). Marshall advances to play Mason in the district final after Mason dispatched Coldwater 5-0. The district final will be played on Friday after press time at Mason High School. Marshall traveled to Mason earlier in the year and came away with a 1-1 tie.
