EIU women’s soccer conceded two goals in 26 seconds in the first half against Southern Indiana, losing in the quarterfinal of the Ohio Valley Conference Championships 3-0 Sunday at Lakeside Field.
The back-to-back goals came in the 27th and 28th minutes. The first goal came off a free kick from the corner when redshirt junior forward Emma Thurston sent it in. Senior defender Charli Grafton scored her second goal in as many games when she got her head to it and put it into the back right corner of the net.
Grafton had never scored in the regular season, but she scored the winning goal earlier in the tournament against Southeast Missouri and a goal against Eastern, bringing her total to two.
Eastern restarted play on the back foot after conceding the first goal. a quick Southern Indiana run-up put pressure on the Eastern backline, and the ball would come to the feet of redshirt sophomore forward Eva Boer after a turnover. Boer passed it to the back post where senior forward Peyton Murphy would put the ball in the net.
“We just wanted to continue pressure,” Southern Indiana head coach Eric Schoenstein said. “EIU is a tremendous team, they’re extremely talented, they had an incredible season, so many talented players. We knew we had to capitalize on our opportunities, so any time we got inside the box, we were looking to finish.”
The third Southern Indiana goal would come in the 52nd minute. Off a free kick, Thurston sent it in where junior goalkeeper Ella Kratochvil would bat the ball down. Then, grabbing her second goal of the game, Murphy put away the rebound into the back left corner.
This marks the end of Eastern’s season. This is the Panthers’ third time in a row that they have lost their first matchup of the tournament. Eastern has not won a postseason game since 2019 and hasn’t gotten past the quarterfinals round since 2018.
Eastern tried to claw back through the game totaling 12 shots to the Screaming Eagles’ 14.
The Panthers’ best chance came in the 44th minute when freshman defender Adison Welsh sent in a cross to senior midfielder Kate Germano, who put a head to it, but there just wasn’t enough power on it.
There were 33 fouls called throughout the game. Eastern totaled 14th , while Southern Indiana picked up the other 19. Two yellow cards were handed out throughout the game. In the 48th minute, Eastern’s sophomore defender Collen Bauer picked one up and in the 81st minute, Screaming Eagle freshman defender Tierney Mullady was shown one as well.
Eastern has seven seniors on the team who will be leaving the program. Redshirt junior goalkeeper Ashlyn Hoover, Germano, redshirt junior defender Liz Galvin, senior midfielder Ella Onstott, senior defender Kya Trejo, redshirt junior midfielder Kylie Mahoney and redshirt junior forward Kayla Green.
“We lose seven very, very special seniors they contribute in so many ways on the field, but off the field where you don’t see,” said head coach Dirk Bennett, “That’s always so hard to replace but we return a lot of our talent on paper and were going to bring some good talent in.”
Emerson Reynolds can be reached at 581-2812 or at etreynolds@eiu.edu.
