Marquette’s Soren Higgins, top, collides into teammate Kyle Michelson, bottom, and Kingsford’s Ben Backlund, right, on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018, at Commemorative Field in Kingsford, Mich. (Adam Niemi/Iron Mountain Daily News)

KINGSFORD — Marquette scored early and often in an 8-0 win over Kingsford on Thursday.

Trevor Salmon’s penalty kick barely a minute into the game blossomed an early advantage. Marquette added three more goals in the half, including another by Salmon.

Pablo Sanchez and Evan Phillips had two goals apiece for Marquette.

The Redmen took advantage of open space in the middle of the field throughout the night to grab and hold momentum.

Kingsford managed just a handful of shots on goal in each half with sparse ball control in the final third.

“Over the past couple weeks we’ve had a couple canceled games so we had some extra practices,” Marquette head coach Dan Menze said. “We’ve been working a new drill that really helped the spacing of our team and the movement off the ball. I thought that really came to fruition tonight. It was a couple times where we went away from it and had some lulls but for the most part they were on top of it. They were talking well and moving together as a unit.”

For Kingsford, it was a clinic on ball control and moving the ball upfield. The Flivvers were plagued throughout the night with off-balance passes that fluttered off-target. Much of this came as Marquette’s well practiced field positioning meant little time for Kingsford players to reign in a pass and send it to a teammate.

“Our problem we had was positioning. A lack of positioning was key,” Kingsford head coach Jeff Gordon said. “That’s where they had their chances at scoring. Then they had those two penalty shots and they scored on each one. They did a very good job at it. They’re a very aggressive team. You can’t leave any spot on the field open. We didn’t take advantage of that and they did.”

Kingsford’s Ben Backlund had a handful of scoring chances. One of his first shots sailed over the goal when it was a 1-0 game and then Marquette added another goal on a penalty kick by Soren Higgins.

Backlund sent a couple more shots sailing just wide or over the crossbar.

Marquette added four more goals in the second half including a pair by Evan Phillips about a minute apart.

Menze said the middle of the field was open throughout the game and adjusted to take advantage.

“They were sitting their defense back quite a bit and pushing three guys up,” Menze said. “We ended up dropping a defensive mid back to help mark their forwards, which opened up more space in the middle that the forwards and the attacking mids we had could check to. When they received with space, the runs off the ball were amazing tonight. That’s really what helped us.”

Gordon said his team improved from the first half to close out the game.

“In the second half we actually did a lot better. I changed some kids around different positions,” Gordon said. “They scored a couple in the second half. It’s just putting people in the right spots. I’ve got young guys and I’m learning more about them.”

Marquette 4 4 — 8

Kingsford 0 0 — 0

First Half

M — Salmon, 38:54

M — Higgins, 24:40

M — Sanchez, 15:35

M — Salmon, 8:41

Second Half

M — Sanchez, 38:30

M — Phillips, 23:47

M — Phillips, 22:36

M — Lindberg, 7:53