Eagles dominate one, tie two
No. 24, Logan Duran, keeping the soccer ball from an opposing player.
photo courtesy Je Barrett
Atley Thompson sports writer
The Utah State University Eastern womens soccer team played three games during the past two weeks and are fighting its way to the top. The Eagles have now played each team in the Scenic West Athletic Conference once and sit in third place out of six teams.
On Sept. 21, the Eagles’ traveled to Craig, Colo., to play Colorado Northwestern Community College. The Eagles came out strong and dominated early against the Spartans, winning 11-0 with goals from Morgan Cragun, Evalyn Ledezma, Raquel Whatcott, Shealee Heywood, Madison Nicholls, Sydney Terwilleger, Brooke McKendrick, Claire Bowman, Ashley Brindley, Morgan Haag and even a goal from the goalkeeper Lillian Hepler.
Meg Edwards and Lillian Hepler earned the clean sheet in goal for the Eagles.
While practicing hard all week, the Eagles hosted their first home-conference game on Sept. 26, against the College of Southern Nevada. The Eagles came out hard in the first half with a corner kick sent in from Cragun, nding the head of Logan Duran for the 1-0 lead at the half.
The Coyotes fought back, scoring a goal in the second half, leveling the game at 1-1.
The Eagles didn’t give up and in the second half, Logan Duran sent a cross in from the side of the eld finding forward Cragun in the box, putting the ball in the back of the net for the lead 2-1.
Unfortunately, the Coyotes created another oppor- tunity and scored, forcing the game into overtime. The Eagles continued to fight in the first half of overtime leading to another half for hopefully another chance, to score. Goalkeeper Edwards came up with a huge save off a penalty kick, keeping the score line equal with the game coming to an end at a 2-2 draw.
With one day to recover, the Eagles hosted the National Junior College Athletic Association’s No. 6 team, the Snow College Badgers on Sept. 28. With a windy day in Price, both teams came out to a hard- fought battle.
Eagles’ coach, Ammon Bennett said, “We stuck to the game plan of defending well and keeping Snow off balance.”
With eight seconds left in the first half, the Badgers were able to find the back of the net and had the lead going into the second half 1-0.
The Eagles continued to fight back, making it hard for the Badgers to create anything on offense. Nearly halfway through the second half, a freekick from defender Brookln Anderson was able to find the feet of mid elder Tasha Kamachi just outside the 18-yard box. Kamachi was able to find the feet of wide-open forward Bowman, who easily found the back of the net, equalizing the score 1-1.
Both teams continued to fight and went into double overtime before the final whistle blew and the final score was 1-1.
With half of the season over, the Eagles return to the start and hosted Truckee Meadows Community College on Thursday, Oct. 3, at 3 pm.
They will also host Salt Lake Community College on Saturday, Oct. 5, with the kickoff set 1 pm.
The Eagles previously beat Truckee Meadows and now look to have revenge on rival Salt Lake Community College.
