CARTHAGE — Not even a bad hamstring or less than ideal weather conditions could stop Daniela Marquez.
Carthage's mentally tough sophomore forward pushed through for the full 80 minutes.
Marquez also provided her team's scoring punch as the Tigers (6-1, 3-1 COC) downed Joplin 2-1 in a Central Ozark Conference tilt on Tuesday night at David Haffner Stadium.
"She really pushes through every time I put her in," Carthage coach Taylor Beck said. "I almost didn't play her tonight, but I knew it would feel good to get back on the field. She has been out a little while. She sets the bar for the other girls to reach. I think they feel that when she's on the field. They play a little harder, a little quicker. She makes plays happen in the middle, and she can shoot from way out. She's a smart player."
Joplin (4-4, 0-3) didn't go down easy. Mya Johnson found the back of the net once and nearly twice to potentially deadlock the score in the waning minutes for the Eagles.
"In the last five minutes, we put our keeper (Johnson) up top, and she got a goal; then another one of her shots hit the post, and her shot went just wide of the far post," Eagles coach Josh Thompson said. "The other shot was just straight to the keeper. But in the last five to 10 minutes, we had pretty good chances there."
After somewhat of a slow start for both sides, Marquez scored her first goal in the 32nd minute, zipping a shot through the middle portion of the net from the right side to hand Carthage a 1-0 lead.
Marquez struck again in the second half, finding the back of the net in the 58th minute to give the Tigers a 2-0 cushion. Johnson scored Joplin's only goal in the 74th minute, a goal that was assisted by Paisley Parker.
Carthage had the advantage with 23 shots on goal compared with the Eagles' 10.
Kaitlin Reyes posted four saves for the Tigers while Kylie Sanchez had three.
"We came out a little sloppy," Beck said. "We didn't settle in very quickly, which is weird because it's our home turf. I know it was snowing, so a little out of their realm. We finally settled in. I told them at halftime if we could just connect passes. ... They were seeing it on the field. They saw where the passes were available, but we couldn't connect them. When we came back out in the second half, they took some of those coaching points and put it into play, which was awesome.
"With about 10 minutes left in the game, I think we just felt too comfortable, but I'm proud of them. I always say a win's a win. We know what we need to work on. We just need to finish. I think we can go a long way this season."
Joplin's Johnson was busy in goal, picking up 10 saves. Reese Schroer collected seven saves.
"That was definitely part of the game plan," Thompson said. "We knew a lot of Carthage's strength was up top with 10 (Daniela Marquez), 7 (Carla Marquez) and 24 (Kianna Yates). We knew they were going to get some opportunities, so being able to stop those was huge for us, especially Reese stepping up whenever Mya couldn't stay in goal. The finish was definitely something you want to build momentum off of. We looked a little sluggish in the first half. We had seven games last week. I think it took a wake-up moment, finishing that strong definitely gives us something to carry into Nixa, which is probably going to be an even bigger test."
Carthage plays at 6:45 p.m. Thursday at Republic. 
-Derek Shore, Joplin Globe Sports

Carthage JV 2, Joplin JV 0