MISSOULA, Mont. – The Eastern Washington University women's soccer team defeated an undefeated Montana squad in a grinding battle this evening in Missoula, Mont., handing the Grizzlies an overtime golden goal to lock a 3-2 victory. The Eagles improve to 4-1-2 in Big Sky Conference play with an overall winning record of 5-3-2 while Montana falls to 7-1 overall and 6-1 in league play.
EWU extends its unbeaten streak to two-straight games after defeating conference rival Idaho last week 2-0 in its last home match of the 2021 spring schedule as they look to face Montana again for one final regular season matchup, in which they must win or tie to solidify their spot in the Big Sky Conference Tournament.
"We played extremely well in the first half and scored some good goals. The second half we got the game taken to us and absorbed a ton of pressure," said head coach
Chad Bodnar. "Overall, for
Taylor Matheny to hit a bomb like that in overtime and for our team to show resilience and heart was a great way to find a win. We now need to regroup and get points again on Sunday."
The Eagles started the match with intentions to score as they produced three corner kicks in first 15 minutes of the match fashioning two shot attempts from those opportunities. As the momentum shifted back-and-fourth, EWU found an early goal in the 23
rd minute off the boot of senior
McKaley Goffard. From an Eagle throw-in in Montana's attacking third, the ball bounced off junior
Marissa Mills' head as she directed it to Goffard who leaped high and headed the ball in the back of the net.
The goal marked the Kennewick native's third goal of the season after scoring against COI in a 5-0 sweep and again against Idaho in which she collected the go-ahead goal to put the Eagles on top 1-0.
As the Eagles continued to press forward, they collected a second goal three minutes later as redshirt junior
Brittany Delridge would find
Sariah Keister, who took only one touch to sneak the ball past Montana's goalkeeper Claire Howard.
Before the halftime whistle blew,
Mya Elder-Hammond, from the right side of the field 20-yards out, shot to bottom right corner but it was scooped up by Howard and the Eagles led 2-0 over the Grizzlies after the first 45 minutes.
With the start of the second half, EWU goalkeeper
Kelsee Winston was called to action as she saved a ball that was dangerously sent into her 18-yard box and deflected towards the bottom right corner. Winston made three crucial saves before Montana found its first goal in the 63
rd minute.
As the momentum began to shift in Montana's favor, they would let off five more shots before collecting an equalizing goal late in the 85
th minute. Winston collected three more saves leading up to Montana's second goal, providing EWU with hopes of victory, as they headed into overtime tied at two-a-piece.
The Eagles only needed six minutes of overtime to find the game-winning goal. Following a shot from
Maddie Morgan that was swept-up by Howard, Matheny, who opened the match with two back-to-back shot attempts, made the correct diagonal run into space to collect the lob through-ball pass from Morgan and calmly composed a left-footed banger to the left side-netting.
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: EWU improves to 5-3-2 overall and 4-1-2 in league play while the Grizzlies fall to 7-1 overall and 6-1 in the conference.
Eastern also improves to an all-time series record of 8-15-2 against Montana and breaks its one-match losing streak after falling to the Griz 1-0 at home in the Big Sky regular season title game on Oct. 30, 2019.
TOP PERFORMANCES: Three seniors collect one goal in
McKaley Goffard,
Sariah Keister and
Taylor Matheny, respectively.
Marissa Mills,
Brittany Delridge and
Maddie Morgan each collect one assist, respectively.
Additionally,
Mya Elder-Hammond and Morgan each took one shot and both landed on target.
Kelsee Winston made six total saves, two crucial moments in the first half and three crucial moments in the second.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: Montana out-shot EWU 13-9, landing eight on target versus EWU's six.
The Eagles forced the Grizzlies to make three saves opposed to EWU's six, and conceded six corner kicks while delivering four.
UP NEXT: Eastern has one more regular season match, facing Montana this Sunday, April 11 at 11 a.m. Pacific time in Missoula, Mont.
The match will be live on Pluto TV Ch. 1056 and fans can catch the
LIVE STATS HERE.
