Benson Peterson, Duluth Marshall open up in midseason form

DULUTH It’s only November, but Duluth Marshall senior Benson Peterson might already be getting tired of hearing his name called out. The senior scored four goals including a natural hat trick in the Hilltoppers’ 10-2 win over Duluth Denfeld Thursday at the Essentia Duluth Heritage Center. This fall, as a second team Class A All-State soccer selection, Peterson scored 27 goals for a Marshall team that won its third straight Section 7A title. “With soccer, I built a lot of momentum for myself personally,” Peterson said. “It was important for me to carry that into the hockey season. It was kind of a short start for me in the first period, but it’s important for our team to forget about stuff and keep moving forward.” The Hunters came out with an early flurry, and senior Cory Backstrom got his first goal of the season with barely 2 minutes gone, but from there it was all Hilltoppers. Layton Anderson tied the score at the 7: 44 mark and he had an assist on Kyler Black’s goal less than 2 minutes later. “Even if we have a slow start, we don’t stray from the path,” Anderson said. “We just play grinding hockey. Even when we were one down, we had no doubt. We knew were going to get back in it and get the win.” Marshall coach Shawn Bartlette knew the first game of the season wouldn’t be “perfect,” but his team got “better, period after period.” “We made some changes to the way were doing things early on and that definitely help us play a little bit faster,” he said. “It’s good to see this early in the season.” The Hilltoppers were 2-for-2 on their power play chances and didn’t give up any on three for the Hunters. More importantly, Marshall is making midseason plays right now, Bartlett said. “Our once-young team has gotten older,” Bartlette said. “We’re ahead of where we have been in years past, which is allowing us to start working on some things that took us until around midseason a year ago. We’ve got some guys that have been playing together for a long time and they’ve got some good chemistry.” A big key Thursday was the Hilltoppers’ depth, Bartlette said. Throughout the game, they were running three and four lines, something that they haven’t been able to do in the past. Bartlette was extremely happy with the way Peterson played Thursday. “He’s just a kid with a high motor,” Bartlette said. “He can get up and down the ice, he’s not afraid of physical play. He just keeps those legs churning and then we saw on a couple of those goals that his release his ability to get the shot off is pretty special too.” The Hilltoppers’ defense was also sharp, blocking shots and making life difficult for the Denfeld attackers. Anderson said the team tries to have “little competitions” during the game to see who can block the most shots before they get to the goalie. Junior Eli Thorson was the winner Thursday. “He blocked a few good ones right in front of the net and there was one he dove for,” Anderson said. “That just shows the kind kid he is and the kind of team we are. We have all bought in since day one. Our goal is to go to state nothing less and it starts today. We said before the game, this is playoff hockey because every game is a step toward state.” Duluth Marshall (1-0) will play at Anoka at 2 p. m. Saturday. Denfeld (0-1) will next play at Cambridge-Isanti at 5: 30 p. m. Saturday.
https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/sports/prep/benson-peterson-duluth-marshall-open-up-in-midseason-form