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But their efforts still yielded a 3-0 win over Cal State Fullerton 3-0 on Thursday evening at Veterans Memorial Soccer Complex in front of more than 2,000 Herd fans in the season opener for both teams. 

The Titans played down a man for much of the match after Fernando Valenzuela was shown a red card in the 16th minute for dragging Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos to the ground by his jersey on a shot attempt. 

That, though, didn't change much, Grassie said. 

"They were less dangerous on the counter after the red, but it was pretty much the same problem (for us)," Grassie said. "We had to pull them to the right and attack left or pull left and attack the right, but we kept trying to go through the middle for the first 30 or 35 minutes."

But once the Herd figured out where to position itself in the attacking third, the goals came soon after.

Taimu Okiyoshi missed the penalty kick after the card that disqualified Valenzuela was issued, but that started a dominant offensive display by the Herd, which outshot the Titans 17-4, with a half-dozen shots on goal.

Aymane Sordo got Marshall on the board in the 38th minute after Titans goalkeeper Brandon Limes deflected a shot from Marco Silva, which Sordo found and hit in stride to break a scoreless tie. 

That was one of 10 shots taken by the Herd in the first 45 minutes of play, compared to just two for the West Coast visitors. 

In the second half, Aleksandar Vukovic logged his first goal as a member of the Thundering Herd in the 63rd minute with a header shot after a corner kick from Alexander Stjernegaard was booted his way by Takahiro Fujita. Both players were credited with an assist. 

"I'm big on visualizing, and for the last two days, I had visualized his corner kick, with Taka getting it back to me," said Vukovic, who played against Fullerton twice last year playing for UC Riverside. "When you believe something, I think it can happen. It was like I had already lived through it because I had thought about it so much."

An own goal by Cal State Fullerton six minutes later set the final score after Ryan Holmes kicked a ball that deflected off a Titan defender. Holmes, a product of nearby Cabell Midland High School, is entering his third year with the Herd and continues to impress Grassie. 

"Running in the channels, his interpreting of the space was fantastic," Grassie said of the junior. "There's a German player, Thomas Müller, they call him the space interpreter, and that's what Holmes was doing tonight, just finding all the right spaces and penetrating."

Aleksa Janjic played all 90 minutes and made one save in the season opener, and 19 other Marshall players saw playing time in the win. 

The Herd returns to action at Xavier on Aug. 29. Cal State Fullerton also plays its next match against the Musketeers, but on Sunday.