Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Anna Kramer tries to kick the ball past a pair of Marshall defenders during the Eagles’ Big South Conference girls soccer game with the Tigers on Tuesday at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — It took more than 50 minutes for the New Ulm Eagles to get things going Tuesday night against the Marshall Tigers, but an increased offensive pressure in the second half, aided by lockdown defense, was enough in the end to earn the Eagles a 1-0 win in Big South Conference girls soccer game.

Anna Kramer’s deflection goal, assisted on by Kaelyn Eikanger, bounced into the left side of the net to break a scoreless tie and put the Eagles on the board in the 52nd minute of play.

“I saw that someone was trying to cross it over and I saw that Kaelyn was there, but I wanted to make sure that if she missed, which she happened to do, that I would be there just in case,” Kramer said. “So I wasn’t specifically trying to hit a certain spot on the ball, I just wanted to hit it and see if it went in, and I guess it did [laughs].”

Both teams didn’t have much success getting many looks on offense in the first half, a credit to each squad’s defense. Marshall and New Ulm each had three shots on goal in the first half, but it was the Eagles that increased their pressure and communication in the second half to bolster their shot attempts.

“I thought we got first touches out of the air better,” Kramer said of the second-half adjustments. “We always want to try to work on that, we especially said that in the first half, so I thought we did better with that. I also think we communicated better, we connected our passes really well, too.”

The Eagles finished with 10 shots on goal to Marshall’s six.

Eagles goalie Ellie Dake only had to make five saves this time as her defenders made things easier on her. Marshall made one final push at the net in the closing seconds, but Eagles defender Yanellie Fernandez swooped in and kicked the ball to the sideline to end the game.

New Ulm hosts Worthington at 7 p.m. Thursday.