ABOVE: Senior midfielder Grace Simpson takes the ball over from Marshall in the first half on Thursday night. Fairmont won 4-1, powered by two goals in the last few minutes. Photo by Samantha Davis, The Marshall Independent.

MARSHALL — The Fairmont girl’s soccer team defeated the Marshall Tigers 4-1 at their turf Thursday evening, extending the start of their season to five straight wins and remaining undefeated.

Coming off a dominant 5-1 win over Windom on Tuesday, the Cardinals kept the good momentum going with goals from senior forward Cadence Leiding, sophomore Abbie Simpson and two from senior forward Kennedy Becker. “I think what we did well was we handled the turf. We practice on grass,” head coach Matt Nielsen said. “I think we adjusted, it took a while, but we adjusted and didn’t give into it. I was really pleased with that.”

Fairmont is a fairly older team compared to Marshall, who has seven seniors and is heavy on eighth graders working on their varsity experience. The Cardinals hold ten seniors, with a handful of juniors and sophomores to follow.

“Basically, the credit goes to the seniors who are completely unselfish and not threatened about younger players playing with them,” Nielsen said. “So, they are mentoring them. The best coaches are the players, and they create the culture.”

The game started competitive for both ends. Fairmont placed three early shots on goal to Marshall’s goal keeper Tristynn Justesen, a seventh grader, in which she saved them all. Marshall freshman Elsie Deutz had a handful of good looks, including her first shot attempt dribbling up the left side of the field, but got kicked out shortly before attacking the third. Cardinals goalkeeper Mary Bennett continued to save shots heavily in the first half, as Marshall continued to attack.

The first goal of the night almost belonged to Fairmont’s Amalia Leiding, a sophomore, but a hard kick from the left side of the night just missed the top right post of the Marshall net. Senior forward Cadence Leiding began to heat up for the Cardinals, and grabbed the first goal of the game at 23:34, to put Fairmont up 1-0. Cadence again two minutes later almost got herself another, but Justesen ran out to meet her and saved the ball.

Deutz scored a goal for Marshall in response in the 29th minute, tying the game up 1-1.

“I think our areas of improvement are, my players still have a tendency on the defensive line, where we are looking at verifying that, ‘Oh this ball is going to go over my head,’ or ‘This ball is passing,’ instead of taking on right away,” Nielsen said. “So, we need top to bottom, just a little better anticipation, but that comes with experience.”

Fairmont’s Becker aggressively attacked for a response to take the lead back, including a shot attempt that hit the bottom half left post, as Justesen continued to protect the net for the Tigers. As the final minutes of the first half winded down and a few more shot attempts took place for both teams, the score remained tied at one going into the second. Amalia started the second half with a close goal for Fairmont, attacking the third and the attempt initially went through Justensen’s hands, but she was able to recover and save the ball.

In the sixth minute of the second, Fairmont took the 2-1 lead with a goal from Simpson. After a few minutes of midfield play, Becker had another shot attempt for the Cardinals, but it was kicked a bit over the top right post. The last half of the game was stagnant, as both sides kept defending the offense, limiting the amount of open looks and runs to the net.

Fairmont took off in the final minutes of the game and quickly jumped to a 4-1 lead, which decided the game. Becker added two goals of her own in the final moments, kicking the ball in at the 34th minute and again right after with five minutes to go.

“Our focus is on gaining improvement, not in a nit-picking way, but each person individually knows their goals they want to work on,” Nielsen said. “If we keep doing that, we will be fine. It’s not so much about winning, we’re still gelling as a team … Still kind of figuring out who we are.”

Fairmont will next play at Cannon Falls Elementary to face Cannon Falls at 1 p.m. Saturday.