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Fall 2017 Preview: Marshfield Soccer

By Matt Turer – mturer@ky3.com
@MattTurer

After three years of inconsistency from 2011-2013 totaled 15 wins, Marshfield’s soccer program has found consistency of late, winning 36 games over the past three seasons with a 2015 district championship thrown in for good measure.

The Blue Jays are coming off a 10-14 season that ended in a first-round district tournament loss to Helias Catholic. They’ll need to replace a pair of first-team all-conference selections on defense in Nate Hartman (Drury University) and Nick Johnson, but the Blue Jays return their top two goal scorers, and that’s a good thing.

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Those two are Jarrett Meyer and Drew Barb, who are only juniors. Meyer is coming off a season with nine goals and seven assists. Barb finished last fall with 10 goals and five assists.

Beyond that pair, head coach Thomas Searson pointed to Reiss Ryder, Dakota Woehr and Danny Parish as key players for Marshfield heading into 2017. Parish said Ryder, a senior, will be called up to help more on the attack this fall after proving a good setup man in the midfield last year. Woehr, a junior, will again be a defensive mid and Parish, a sophomore, will help control the attack in the midfield.

“I’m hoping for a more varied style of soccer [this year],” Searson said. “As our skill improves we can try some things we haven’t done before.”

With Hartman and Johnson gone, much of the focus will be filling those spots on defense, as well as switching things up to aid in COC-Small play.

“Defense will be important as always,” Searson said. “Every team in the conference is a tough opponent, so we will need to be on the top of our game to get those conference wins. These teams know us well and how we’ve played over the last couple of years, so I’m hoping to maybe show them something a little different this season.”