Marshfield coach Kent Wigle hopes his team worked out all the kinks during its endowment game win over North Bend last Friday, because the Pirates are in for a big challenge Friday night, when they travel to Eugene to face Marist.

“They’re a good football team,” Wigle said of the Spartans, the defending Class 4A champions.

Marist beat the Pirates with a stunning last-minute rally last year, and Wigle expects the Spartans to challenge Marshfield with a strong group of skill-position players.

“We’re going to have to play really well defensively to slow them down,” he said. “And we’ve got to tackle well in the open field.”

Marist lost its season opener to Central by a 56-42 score on Friday, the Panthers scoring a pair of late touchdowns to pull away.

Marist quarterback Tevin Cheever had a field day in the loss, though, throwing five touchdown passes — three of 28 or more yards. Marist’s top playmakers are Gianni Carter, one of the state’s top recruits, and Jeff Bedbury, who had a 62-yard touchdown reception in the loss. Bedbury and Carter each had two touchdowns.

Marshfield, meanwhile, pulled away late in its 31-9 win over North Bend, scoring 25 points in the final 13 minutes.

Wigle was pleased with his team’s defense, especially the play of Bo Cutting, Levi Meline and Shane Daly.

But the Pirates have much room for improvement on offense, Wigle said.

“We’ve got to take care of the football,” he said.

The Pirates lost four fumbles Friday night.

“Hopefully that’s a learning situation,” Wigle said.

He also expects quarterback Kyle Tedder to make better decisions in his second varsity start.

“He just needs to calm down,” Wigle said.

Marshfield also needs better work by both the offensive and defensive lines.

“I was very disappointed with our pad level,” he said. “We just need to be more physical.”

Wigle attributed some of the problems to the short practice period the team had — just nine days, six in pads — before the game.

“Let’s face it,” he said. “When you have the endowment game that early after two weeks of practice, you’re going to shirk some things.”

Marshfield will need to be much better this week.