FAIRMONT — The teams played 80 minutes, but the final one made the difference.

The Marshall Tigers scored a last-minute goal to take a 2-1 win over the Fairmont Area Cardinals in a Big South Conference matchup at Kot Soccer Complex in Fairmont on Thursday.

With the score tied at 1 and 45 seconds left, Marshall’s Eli Salisbury collected a loose ball near the far right corner of the goalie box and rocketed a shot into the bottom left corner of the Fairmont Area goal to give Marshall the winning score.

Marshall outshot Fairmont Area 19-5 in the contest, but Tyson Geerdes kept the Cardinals in the game with stellar keeper play.

Geerdes finished the game with 17 saves, including two diving stops that kept the score tied.

“I though Tyson played a really good game,” Cardinals head coach Brady Meyer said. “We were talking to the defense about how he makes the saves most of the time, but once in a while he might bobble one or might not get his whole hand on it and we have to make sure we follow up on those plays. But overall, I think he did a phenomenal job tonight.”

Geerdes nearly kept the Cardinals in the lead with 27:47 left in the matchup. Fairmont Area was ahead 1-0 when Geerdes made a diving save on a Abdulahi Omar shot, but Geerdes couldn’t corral the rebound and Marshall’s Mookey Stee chipped the ball over Geerdes and into the goal as he got back up, tying the matchup at 1.

Late in the first half with the game scoreless, Geerdes made his first fully-laid out stop, diving to his right and knocking Ariel Ramon Ramos’ driven shot past the goal.

After Geerdes kept the first half scoreless, Meyer said he gave the team a message to gain control at halftime.

“We were really pushing and trying to calm them down on the passing,” Meyer said. “Our first half, we were seeing a lot of 10-yard balls at each others’ chest so we were just trying to calm down, possess, keep your head up, not try to rush the ball so much and keep the possession so we could move the ball up.”

Fairmont Area scored the first goal of the game on a penalty kick.

Amos Broomfield attacked from the right side of the goalie box and was taken out by a slide, causing a yellow card for Marshall’s Hsa Khee Lar and giving Broomfield a free try.

Broomfield hesitated in his approach, then drove the ball into the bottom right corner of the net, past Marshall’s diving keeper, Tristan VanDeVere for the first goal of the matchup. VanDeVere would end the game with four saves to net the win.

Meyer said the Cardinals’ performance was solid, but minor mistakes made the difference.

“Overall, we weren’t disappointed with our play,” Meyer said. “We saw a lot of good things today.”

Fairmont Area (2-3, 2-3 Big South) travels to Jordan at 2 p.m. Saturday, while Marshall (3-1-2, 3-1-2) goes to Central Minnesota Christian at 6:15 p.m. Monday.

Marshall 0-2–2

Fairmont 0-1–1

Scoring Plays

1st Half

No scoring.

2nd Half

FMT–Amos Broomfield (Penalty kick), 35:59.

MAR–Mookey Stee (unassisted), 27:47.

MAR–Eli Salisbury (unassisted), 0:45.

Shots on goal: Fairmont Area 1-4–5; Marshall 7-12–19. Corners: Fairmont Area 0-1–1; Marshall 3-3–6.

Saves: Tyson Geerdes (FA) 7-10–17; Tristan VanDeVere 1-3–4.

Marshall scored seven unanswered goals to beat Fairmont Area 7-1 in junior varsity action at Kot Soccer Complex on Thursday.

Evan Carlson scored Fairmont Area’s lone goal with 36:45 left in the first half before Marshall scored five to take a 5-1 lead into halftime.

Bryant Armitage made 12 saves for Fairmont Area, while Ben Heinze made one in limited goalie action.

Marshall outshot the Cardinals 21-4 in the contest.

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Girls Soccer

Fairmont Area 3, Marshall 0 — Striker Joni Becker literally struck again Thursday night.

Joni Becker converted back-to-back second-half assists from Emma Schultze, Mackenzie Householder delivered the visitors’ initial goal and netkeeper Cadence Becker produced a shutout to help the Cardinals declaw the Tigers, 3-0, during Big South Conference action on the turf at Southwest Minnesota State University.

Fairmont Area, which amassed a 23-5 edge in the shot-on-goal category on the night, garnered an early 1-0 lead off a corner kick. Sami Lenort launched a long missile that Householder drove into the twine at the 38:08 juncture of the opening half.

Joni Becker, who collected a hat trick — including the game-winner in overtime over Waseca on Tuesday, and Emma Schultze connected for second-half scores at the 36:36 and 32:32 marks.

Fairmont held a 7-0 advantage over Marshall in corner kicks.

Cadence Becker earned the shutout by turning away all five shots she faced for the Cardinals.

Tigers goaltender Emma Mernaugh made a game-best 20 saves.

Fairmont Area (5-1, 4-1 Big South) plays host to Jordan at noon Saturday at Kot Soccer Complex in Fairmont.

Fairmont Area and Marshall battled to a scoreless tie during junior varsity action Thursday in Marshall.

Kaiden Boerner and Angel Smith shared the Cardinals’ goalkeeping duties on the game.

Fairmont Area outshot Marshall by a 14-3 edge.