HUNTINGTON, W.Va.- The Thundering Herd men’s soccer team took Sam Hood Field on Wednesday night for a midweek showdown with NAIA foe Asbury and walked away 7-0 winners after six different Marshall players found the back of the net.

The victory improved Marshall to 8-1-1 on the season and gave senior goalkeeper Daniel Withrow 7.5 career shutouts to tie the single-season record set by Taly Goode back in 2000.

The Herd’s opening goal arrived just 33 seconds into the match when freshman Nick Edginton rose to head home a Tom Jackson throw-in for his first collegiate goal. Seven minutes later, Edginton turned provider as he assisted fellow freshman Jack Hopkins’ fourth goal of the year, before Tom Jackson finished a Cade Parton cross to add to his team leading tally of six goals and give the Herd a 3-0 advantage heading into halftime.

After the intermission, play resumed with freshman Jesus Mafouta netting his first career goal for Marshall in the 67^th minute of play. Another freshman, Andrew Ferguson, scored his second goal of the season in the 80^th minute before assisting junior Michael Hayes some two minutes later. Mafouta then punctuated the Herd victory with his second score of the game at the 82-minute mark. The Hayes and Mafouta strikes came just 21 seconds apart, setting the Marshall record for quickest back-to-back goals.

All said, four freshmen found their way onto the score sheet as Marshall dominated Asbury to keep its undefeated non-conference (7-0-1) and home (2-0) records intact.

“It was a good win and I was happy to see our guys play well together here at Sam Hood,” said head coach Bob Gray. “I like this group of guys. We’ve got some solid freshman and we’re all working well together at the moment. We’ve got a lot of depth on this team, and going forward it was good that some of these guys got some time and scored goals tonight because they are going to be big factors down the road. Hopefully we can keep it rolling for the rest of this season.”

Marshall will now travel to the University of Evansville for a 7 p.m. match on Saturday as it closes out non-conference play for the regular season. Following the Evansville game, the Herd will play six-straight Conference USA opponents to finish out the year.

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