With hopes for the playoffs on the line, Marshfield’s boys soccer team had to face rival North Eugene at home with a decimated roster and lost to the Highlanders 8-0 Tuesday night.

The Pirates were without five key players who are no longer on the team due to a combination of Marshfield’s new “no pass, no play” academic eligibility standards and several violations of the school’s student conduct code.

“We have a set of team rules, and those rules weren’t followed,” said Pirates coach Tony Preston after the loss. “No matter who it is, I’ve got to take care of it. It’s part of my job as a coach.”

Preston pulled two players off the junior varsity team and shuffled some other guys around, but there were just too many holes to fill Tuesday night at Pete Susick Stadium.

Still, the Pirates went into halftime down just 2-0 after North Eugene scored on a left-footed blast from Fortino Vasques in the seventh minute and a sneaky shot at the far post from Elvis Pavon in the 22nd.

Vasques was a terror in the midfield for the Highlanders, and the team made good use of the long throw-in ability of Landon Frost — he could chuck the ball easily 30 yards, making deep throw-ins dangerous — who assisted on Pavon’s goal.

Marshfield came out aggressive in the second half, but North Eugene put the game away with goals that seemed to come in spurts. The Highlanders had three goals in three minutes, coming from Nathan Crooks in the 50th minute, a Marshfield own goal in the 52nd and Chase Pearson in the 53rd.

“That broke our backs,” said Preston.

Crooks added two more goals — in the 63rd and 75th minutes — to complete a hat trick and Pearson tacked on a second in the 65th minute and the final score was 8-0. Sergio Mora, Ivan Guitron, Steven Clevenger and Pavon had assists in the match.

The Pirates had several chances to avoid the shutout, mainly in the second half.

Jacob Starfelt nearly scored twice for Marshfield, using a nose for the goal and late hustle to cause North Eugene problems in the latter part of the second half.

In the 56th minute, Starfelt took advantage of an ill-planned headball back to the keeper from the Highlanders, collected the ball and sent a shot toward the goal that was narrowly blocked by North Eugene goalie Adam Knight.

In the 64th minute, Starfelt again pursued a pass back to the goalkeeper, broke up the play and headed a bouncing ball toward the goal. It ricocheted off the crossbar, where freshman Kelly Kennedy — one of the players brought up for the game — put a left boot on a shot that was saved by Knight.

That wasn’t the only scoring chance the young Kennedy saw, either.

In the final minute, Marshfield’s Kyal Long beat two defenders on the dribble but lost the ball near the goal and Kennedy again put a shot at Knight that the Highlander keeper was able to rein in.

Starfelt was the most dangerous offensive weapon for the Pirates, though. He said after the game the team was hurting from losing five important players.

“It was frustrating,” he said of the game. “I think we just need a good practice tomorrow, though. If we can get it together and get used to the lost players, we can put up some good resistance in the rest of our games.”

Defensively, Forrest Rambo was tough in the back for Marshfield, aggressively breaking up plays and showing good leadership. He also noted that the team had some holes to fill, particularly from the loss of one of its top stoppers.

“Getting used to playing without (the missing players) takes its toll,” he said, but noted that the team’s overall attitude might be better now. “We need to keep playing and practicing as a team, and talking on the field. It was dead silent up front. I can’t do all the talking.”

Freshman Will Rogers stepped in on defense and was a nice surprise for the Pirates, as he didn’t back down at all and was able to break up some key plays.

“Will Rogers, he just did a great job for us,” said Rambo.

Adam Alexander, Angel Duarte and Daniel Chavez had solid matches for the Pirates as well, but mainly the Highlanders were able to control the midfield and build offense that way.

“They took advantage of some of our weaknesses,” said Preston. “We had some guys stepping into positions they’re not familiar with.”

North Eugene coach Salvador Barajas said his team came into the match pumped up, as the meeting between the fourth-place Pirates and the third-place Highlanders had serious playoff implications.

“We were expecting a big fight here,” said Barajas, who was pleasantly surprised to find nearly half of Marshfield’s starting lineup not present. “It was one of those games, I guess. (Marshfield’s) program has really improved compared to three or four years ago, though. (Preston) is doing something right.”

The Pirates still sit in fourth place in the Midwestern League, but at 2-5 the team would need a lot of help to catch 5-2 North Eugene for the third and final playoff spot.

For now, though, the Pirates are just going to focus on trying to become a team again.

“At least this game does give us some things to work on in practice,” said Preston. “We’ll have to work on finding our offense again.”