As a member of the College Spring League, the Herd beat the Michigan State Spartans in penalty kicks 4-3 to take revenge on them for the 2024 CSL Tournament loss against the Spartans.
The Spartans and Herd met up in Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, for the finals.
Michigan State jumped out to an early lead when Spartan attacker Andrew Darakdjian fired a shot past Marshall’s goalkeeper, Dan Rose, to make the score 1-0 in just the first 10 minutes of the game.
Just a few minutes later, Marshall’s Rai Pinto was able to even the match 1-1.
Michigan State wouldn’t let up easily; they immediately fired back with another goal, this time by Aidan Phelan to give the Spartans the lead again 2-1 going into halftime.
In the second half, Marshall scored nearly back-to-back goals by Stephane Njike and Loic Sany Kong to regain the lead for Marshall.
Near the end of regulation, Spartan forward Oscar Huerta evened the score again to force overtime and penalty kicks.
However, after all the drama in the game, Marshall ended up on top after penalty to secure the CSL championship win.
Rose spent all 90 minutes of the match protecting the net with three saves for the herd.
Before the championship, Marshall went 3-0-1 for the South League in the round robin tournament with wins over Butler University (forfeit), a 3-1 victory of the University of Louisville and a 3-1 victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes, but did feature a loss to the Xavier University Musketeers.
Michigan State finished first in the North League with a record of 2-0-2, with 2-1 wins against University of Michigan Wolverines and the University of Dayton Flyers.
After the tournament, Karill Pakhomov, Pinto and Joao Roberto were named to the College Spring League All-League South Division team.
Njike was named MVP of the tournament as well.
Marshall looks to have another standout season under head coach Chris Grassie after making it to the national championship finals last year but falling just short against the University of Vermont Catamounts in overtime.
Nate Harrah can be contacted at [email protected].
