Staff photo by Fritz Busch New Ulm running back Dylen Carreon tries to elude a Marshall defender who breaks through the the line at New Ulm High School Saturday.

NEW ULM — Marshall scored touchdowns on three of its first four possessions as the Tigers downed the New Ulm Eagles 49-16 Saturday at New Ulm High School.

Tigers’ quarterback Brevin Ruina threw three touchdown passes to wide receiver Bryce Lance of 36, 20 and 57 yards and also fired an 25-yard scoring pass to Chidi Nwakama.

Cole Ranweiler and Brayden Geariety scored the Eagles’ touchdowns with Ranweiler’s coming on a 77-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

Geariety’s touchdown came on a 19-yard pass from Isaiah Miller.

Ranweiler ran in a 2-point conversion and Ethan Stade caught a 2-point conversion pass from Miler.

“Last year we were down 50-0 at halftime and we lost 68-0,” Eagles coach Eric Kauffmann said. “Today we lose 49-16. Marshall is good but we did some things good agains them. It is just too bad we had to start the season against them.”

Marshall grabbed a 21-0 first quarter lead before the Eagles, who play at Worthington next Friday, got on the board early in the second quarter when senior Cole Ranweiler broke loose down the right sidelines for a 77-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 21-7

“Without our offensive line making those blocks for Cole, he does not get those yards,” Kauffmann said.

But the Tigers came right back when Chidi Nwakama scampered 58 yards for a touchdown and a 28-8 lead.

A 57-yard pass from Ruina to Lance gave Marshall a 35-8 lead at halftime.

The Eagles used a nine-play, 81-yard drive to cut the lead to 35-16 when Miller hooked up with Geariety from 19 yards out midway through the third quarter.

“We had a lot of young guys who had to play today,” Kauffmann said. “Nate Wolkow, a sophomore, started at center and we used junior Braydon Hoffmann at guard and he had not played for a year. They were both productive for us and right now most of our kids just need experience.”