The Marshall County Tigerettes moved into sole possession of first place in the southern division of the District 12-A-AA standings by defeating the Loretto Lady Mustangs 3-1 at home on Tuesday evening.

MCHS (6-3-1, 2-0 District) came flying out of the gates and forged a 3-0 lead in the first half before cruising to their sixth victory of the season.

"It's a really big win after having a very tough week last week. We played four games in six days and only won one so it's nice to get back on track," said Marshall County coach Mark Redferrin. "All season long I've preached about getting off to a fast start. We want to score early and score often because it's always huge to score the first goal.

Offensive leader

Sophomore midfielder Abbey Redferrin led the Tigerettes' offensive attack by tallying two goals and an assist, while senior striker Emily Spence added one goal. MCHS goalie Alexis Ford turned in another solid effort and recorded six saves.

"We did a much better job possessing and distributing the ball. We were also more aggressive tonight than we were last week," said Mark Redferrin.

Anna Gieske scored Loretto's lone goal of the contest, while Riley Littrell notched an assist. Lady Mustang goalie Demetria Busby finished with five saves.

After Loretto (3-4, 1-1 District) was called for a handball in the goalie box just three minutes into the contest, Abbey Redferrin made the Lady Mustangs pay for the mistake and blasted the penalty kick into the upper left hand corner of the net to give Marshall County a 1-0 advantage.

Second score

Marshall County saw their lead grow to 2-0 in the 14th minute when a direct kick by Abbey Redferrin ricocheted off a Loretto defender and bounced just inside the left post of the Lady Mustang net.

Loretto had a chance to cut into the deficit in the 16th minute when striker Brooke Kleinke got behind the MCHS defense and fired an uncontested shot towards the left corner of the Tigerette goal, but Ford made a leaping save to keep the Lady Mustangs off the board.

Spence then staked Marshall County to a 3-0 advantage in the 26th minute by dribbling around a Loretto defender and lining a shot into the left corner of the net after running down a long downfield pass by Abbey Redferrin in the middle of the field.

Close attempts

In the second half, the Tigerettes came tantalizingly close to scoring goals on two more occasions. After Spence had a line drive shot bounce off the top post of the goal in the 48th minute, fellow striker Clara Wilson lofted a long range shot towards the upper left hand corner of the net in the 65th minute, but Busby leapt up and batted the ball away at the last moment.

Loretto finally broke up Marshall County's shutout bid in the 77th minute when Gieske outran a MCHS defender to a long downfield pass by Littrell before cranking a close range shot past Ford for the 3-1 final.