Photo courtesy of Marshall Independent, Jake Przytarski New Ulm’s Brayden Geariety (19) tries to bring down Marshall tight end Trey Steinbach (11) on Friday night in a South Central District, Red Subdistrict football game in Marshall.

MARSHALL — A 59-point first half guided by a four-touchdown burst by quarterback Konnor Aufenthie gave the Marshall football team the lift it needed to dispatch the visiting New Ulm Eagles in a 68-0 final.

The Tigers opened up the scoring on their very first drive of the game set up by a screen pass to running back Gabe Raini who broke multiple tackles before being brought down deep in the Eagles’ red zone. The Tigers went on to capitalize with a 13-yard touchdown run by Brayden Hilgemann to make it 7-0 following an extra point by Hugo Cifuentes.

After the ensuing kickoff sailed out of bounds, the New Ulm offense set up shop at its own 40-yard line, but was unable to take advantage of the favorable field position as the series ended with their first of six consecutive three-and-outs in the first half. The Eagles would finish the game with one first down coming late in the second half and 15 yards of total offense.

Marshall’s offense continued to find room to run on its second series and navigated its way down to New Ulm’s 5-yard line following big gains on the ground by Raini. The promising drive was cut short at the 5-yard line, however, as the Eagles recorded the game’s first turnover with a fumble recovery deep in their own territory.

Following the miscue on offense, the Tigers bounced back with a defensive stand and a blocked punt for a safety to extend their lead to 9-0. On the ensuing drive, Auftenthie scored his first of four total touchdowns combined through the air and on the ground in the first half via a goal-line plunge to make it 17-0 through one quarter of play.

The Marshall offense kicked into another gear to begin the second quarter by scoring six touchdowns beginning with a reverse play that put the ball in the hands of Dean Pochardt for a 29-yard score to make it 23-0.

WIth all of Marshall’s scoring drives capped off by rushing touchdowns up to that point, the Tigers took to the air and connected for a touchdown as Bryce Lance hauled in a 31-yard touchdown grab to make it 31-0 following a 2-point conversion. Tight end Trey Steinbach would find the end zone moments later on a 29-yard touchdown passing play to add to their lead.

The Tigers would close out the half with three more touchdowns, including Pochardt’s second of the game on a 7-yard pass play. Before the final second ticked off the clock, Raini would cross the goal line for the final two scores to make it 59-0 at halftime.

With the game all but decided, the Tigers opened up the second half with their second string players taking over for the remainder of the contest. Marshall would add a 1-yard touchdown run by backup quarterback Brevin Runia in the fourth quarter and later record their second safety of the game to bring the game to its final score of 68-0.

New Ulm (3-2) will return to its home field next Friday when it hosts Jordan in a South Central district matchup.