The Eagles needed every bit of defense and strong goalkeeping in the end to get the job done, but they did it with a 1-0 win in a nondivision boys soccer game.

Jackson Ocampo scored the lone goal for the Eagles, now 9-0 on the year, in the 33rd minute of play on an assist by Dan Brownfield.

The Tigers, who fell to 5-5 on the season, recorded nine shots on goal. Those nine shots were stopped by Eagles senior goalie Austin Krohn, who had to make a handful of extra-effort saves in the game, two in the first half.

Krohn’s first big save came off the foot of senior forward Isaiah Argueta, whose long straightaway shot at the net was knocked away high by the left hand of Krohn.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm goalie Austin Krohn makes a one-handed save during he first half of Thursday’s boys soccer game against Marshall at New Ulm High School.

“I knew when that shot came up I was a little too far forward, I was, like, ‘Oh, crap,'” Krohn said. “Came back a little bit and knew I couldn’t grab it, so I just punched it up in the air and hoped it would stay in bounds, which it did, and I was able to grab it again and get it upfield to one of our strikers.”

Krohn made another high save with less than 15 minutes to go in the first half, this time getting both hands on the ball to deflect it out of bounds.

After falling short to Marshall in the Big South title game last year, a year that saw Krohn play as a defender, Krohn said he felt a little added stress coming into Thursday’s rematch.

“It was a little bit stressful coming into it, but we’ve got a pretty good team this year,” Krohn said. “We’ve got a good defense, good offense, good midfield, everything. I just figured if I do my part, the rest of the team will do their part and we should come out with the win, which we did.”

Marshall goalie Jameson Cornell stopped eight of nine New Ulm shots he saw in net.

Eagles head coach Tim Plocher said the Tigers defended the outsides well and were good on their first touch, but the Eagles’ pressure was the difference maker in the end.

“They had some very fast defenders that could outrun some of our guys, so we just had to get them out of position,” he said. “As far as what they teach their guys and what we teach out guys we have is we put pressure on the ball no matter what, we try to keep our shape when we’re putting pressure on … They’re really good on the first touch, but if you keep the pressure on it doesn’t matter how good your first touch is if you can’t get the ball off.”

Ocampo’s goal was the sixth shot on goal Cornell faced and it came after a solid through pass from Brownfield. Ocampo gathered the ball from the left side and put it in the top right corner of the net in close to give New Ulm the 1-0 lead.

Krohn’s ninth save that led to New Ulm’s ninth victory came in the final six minutes off a free kick from Isaiah MacMurchy. Krohn’s got both hands on the shot, another high one, and knocked it off the football’s crossbar. The ball did immediately bounce back into play, leaving Krohn to scramble for it and fend off a few Tigers in the goal box, but it was whistled out of play.

“When that shot came up, I punched it up and thought it hit the crossbar, like the soccer crossbar, and I saw it was right on the line,” Krohn said. “I slapped it out and was, like, ‘Oh, boy,’ Got the heart racing a little bit.”

Plocher said his team came out with some poor early play in a win against St. Peter at home Tuesday, a game that forced the Eagles to play from behind, and said they talked about getting back to playing their brand of soccer when Marshall visited Thursday.

“We said, ‘Hey, this is how we play soccer. We’ve gotta come out, we’ve gotta get to the outside down the side,'” Plocher said. “I noticed that they were defending the outsides really well, so it was harder for us to do our game plan, but we were able to squeak one in there.”

In addition to Krohn’s goalkeeping, Plocher said his defenders, Tegan Kral, Cole Frederick, Tyler Fischer and Josh Shaneman, have been key all season and came through again on Thursday. Kral, Frederick and Fischer are returning defensive starters, while Shaneman has taken the last defensive starting spot in place of Krohn.

“This defense has just been rock solid every single game they’re in,” Plocher said. “They play with heart, they make really smart decisions. Cole [Frederick] being a good captain up there, it’s his fourth year on varsity and he’s mastered that spot. I’ve had three of the four have been the starting defense for the last three years, so they’ve really molded into the role. They know to cover each other’s weaknesses, they do that pretty well.”

Marshall is at Tri-City United for a nonconference game on Tuesday, while New Ulm is at Mankato West on Monday for a nonconference game.