CHENEY, Wash. -- The Eastern Washington University women's soccer team collected its first shutout of the season en route to a 1-0 victory over the University of South Dakota on Sunday (Aug. 20). With the win, the Eagles advance to 2-0 while South Dakota falls to 0-2. The Eagles were solid on both sides of the ball as they took 20 shots and only allowed USD to take one over 90 minutes of play.

"I thought we played well and created a lot of chances," said head coach Chad Bodnar. "Defensively, we did well with maintaining possession and our back four and the two in front of them did a great job at staying compact and not letting them concede any chances. I thought we were sound."

EWU's offensive attack started early in the seventh minute when Devan Talley found the back of the net off of an assist from Chloe Williams. However, the goal was disallowed due to the Eagles being offsides.

The offensive momentum carried into the 17th minute when Williams put her first of three shots on goal but it couldn't get past the Coyotes' keeper, Coral Suarez. The Eagles also had an opportunity towards the end of the second half when Sariah Keister put a shot on frame but it landed in the hands of the keeper.

After 45 minutes of play, both sides headed into the locker rooms with an 0-0 draw.

Eastern wasted no time getting on the board in the second half. Following touches from Delaney Romero and Aimie Inthoulay, senior Lexi Klinkenberg dribbled in from the right side and launched one into the back of the net giving the Eagles a 1-0 lead.

Following Klinkenberg's goal, Romero and Williams put two more shots on target in the 47th minute but they couldn't capitalize on the opportunities.
 
Throughout the remainder of the second half the Eagles were able to maintain possession and had plenty of scoring chances as they placed five more shots on goal. Two of those shots came within two minutes of each other when Romero took a shot in the 78th minute followed by Alexis Stephenson taking another in the 79th.

South Dakota's best chance to score came in the 89th minute as they took a shot from 20 yards out, but the defense stayed strong and helped EWU to its second consecutive victory.

The Eagles had 20 shots from 10 different players. Williams led the team in shots with eight, with three of them on goal. Right behind her was Romero with five goals and two on goal.

Senior goalkeeper Emily Busselman started off in net for the Eagles. Freshman Kelsee Winston closed out the game in the second half for her second game in a row in net.

In net for South Dakota was Carol Suarez, who collected a total of nine saves.

Win-Loss Record

Eastern Washington moves to 2-0-0 on the year, while South Dakota falls 0-2-0. The Eagles improve their series record against USD to 3-1. EWU won last year's contest 3-1 on Sept. 16 on the road.

What it Means

This marks the third year in a row the EWU starts off its season at least 2-0. The Eagles also opened up their first two games at home for the second year in a row.

Keys to the Game

Eastern had a dominate performance on both sides of the ball as the Eagles outshot South Dakota 20-1. The Eagles also had seven corner kicks in the contest while the Coyotes had two.

Ten different Eagles had shots for the team, with six of them also having at least one shot on goal.

Top Performers

Lexi Klinkenberg scored the winning and only goal in the game during the 46th minute for her first goal of the year.

Chloe Williams had eight shots and three of them were on goal. After sitting out the first half, Delaney Romero came off the bench and had an immediate presence on offense as she collected five shots with two of them being on goal.

Notables

Today's victory marks the 35th win for Eastern Washington under head coach Chad Bodnar. The win pushes his career home record to 20-6-5 since he took over in 2014.

Bodnar Bites

On the backline: "M'Kenna, Maia, Allison and Megan are all experienced and they have played quite a bit over the last three years. It was a point of emphasis for us this training camp to be better at the back and not leak any goals like we have in the past. They did a great job."

Halftime Discussion: "We are used to scoring early and sometimes you're not always going to score two goals in the first half. The biggest thing was to not get frustrated and not let the fact that we hadn't scored get to us. I told them to stay on even keel and have the confidence that it's going to come together at some point."

On the team's maturity: "We have an older team now and we've seen some tough situations. Scoring first thing in the second half took some weight off of us. We missed a lot of good chances, but the positive thing is that we created a lot of good chances that unfortunately couldn't find the back of the net."

On facing Air Force and San Jose next week: "We've got to play better than we did today. On Friday's game against Omaha, we were good in front of the net but not behind it. Today, we played well but didn't finish our chances. We have to put those two together because the teams we're playing are only going to get better as the season goes on."

What's Next

The Eagles hit the road for the next four games. The first two will take place in Missoula, Mont. in the Montana Cup against San Jose State and Air Force. Then EWU travels to New York to take on Hofstra and Cornell. Eastern will return home on Sept. 8 when it takes on Gonzaga.