Marquette’s Hattie Britton, right, moves the ball into position just before scoring the first goal of a high school girls soccer game played against Iron Mountain on Thursday at Marquette Senior HIgh School. (Journal photo by Ryan Stieg)

“We were controlling the game, but we weren’t really finishing or capitalizing on the chances that we had.” — Anna BAuers, head coach, Marquette girls soccer

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MARQUETTE — If you put enough pressure on a defense, it’ll probably pay off as it did for the Marquette Senior High School girls soccer team on Thursday night.

After being kept off the scoreboard in the first half, the Redettes dominated the second half, pumping three goals into the back of the net for a 3-0 win over Iron Mountain.

“It was like a buildup,” Marquette head coach Anna Bauers said. “We were controlling the game, but we weren’t really finishing or capitalizing on the chances that we had, which I credit to Iron Mountain.

“They were physical and they were pressuring and they had a good goalie. All we had to do is just put it right in the corners and we just couldn’t do that.

“But luckily, once we broke through, it kind of all came together a little bit.”

After just missing out on a goal twice by shooting it over the crossbar early in the second half, Marquette sophomore Hattie Britton fired a shot just under the bar in the 54th minute to make it 1-0.

“The thing is I was kind of thinking because she had taken a shot earlier and I was like ‘I wish she would’ve taken a touch’ and then right there, she actually took a touch,” Bauers said. “She took her time and was able to get it with her left foot, which she was super proud of.”

The Redettes struck again in the 70th minute off a nice play by sophomore Bella Lorens. She chased down a loose ball, collected it just before it rolled out of bounds, passed it over to Hannah Mason in front of the net and Mason fired it in for a 2-0 lead.

“Bella is our leading scorer and her dribbling skills are very high for her age,” Bauers said. “She had a lot of chances where she could’ve put it in, but we’re working on passing and she got a very nice assist to Hannah. So that was just a really pretty kind of development play.”

Lorens almost padded Marquette’s lead to three goals four minutes later as she streaked up the right sideline, but her shot was just kept out of the net thanks to a nice diving save by Mountaineers goalie Emily Copley. Marquette scored on its next opportunity, though, as senior Paige Britton scored just inside the right post to cap off the Redettes’ scoring effort.

The first half was much tighter as Copley kept the Redettes off the board. She saved a shot by Alyson McCarthy on a good rush toward the net in the 22nd minute and then denied Addie Ollila in the 25th minute.

At the other end, Marquette’s Sydney Lake also made some nice saves. In the 26th minute, Lake came way out of her net to make an aggressive sliding save and later in the 31st minute, she almost let one by her as she bobbled a save and left a wide-open net. However, she recovered the ball in time to maintain the 0-0 score.

The Redettes had one last good scoring chance as Lorens got free down the left sideline, but Copley made a nice save in the 33rd minute.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal. net.