April 19, 2024

Eagles soar past visiting Spartans

A scoreless first half turned into a 4-0 Eagle rout Saturday in the 14th meeting between the USU Eastern men’s soccer team and Colorado Northwest Community College.

“After our two losses last week, we tried to work on some things that we struggled with,” said sophomore wing Parker Huff. “I felt like our practices leading up to the CNCC game were really good because what we worked on was implemented in that game.”

It was the fourth straight win for the Eagles against Colorado Northwest and improved their 2021 record to 4-3 and an all-time record of 11- 2-1 against Colorado Northwest. The Spartans record slipped to 2-7 on the year.

On Thursday, September 23, the USU East- ern Eagles are in Redlands, California, to take on the Community Christian College Saints. This will be the first ever match-up between the Eagles and Saints. The Saints come into the match with a 0-4 record.

The Eagles played a clean game defensively, committing six fouls, and allowing CNCC five shots on goal for the match. Goalkeeper Benjamin Miller had three saves. It was the team’s 2nd shutout for the season.

Huff says the Eagles are confident ahead of the match-up. “Going into our next games, we feel like the way we played against CNCC was a good building block for our upcoming games”.

Depth was the key to the match for USU Eastern. All 26 team members played at least 12 minutes. The rotation kept the Eagles fresh and they dominated the second half.

On Saturday, the Eagles travel to Henderson, Nevada, to take on the College of Southern Nevada Coyotes. The Coyotes entered this week with a 3-4-1 record. Players to watch include sophomores Alfredo Diaz and Christopher Bramasco, who lead the Coyotes with 4 and 3 goals respectively.

At the start of the second half, the score was 0-0 until the 54th minute when David Gaspar scored on a penalty kick. It was Gaspar’s second goal of the year.

The Eagles led 2-0 Eagle three minutes later when CNCC scored an own-goal in favor of the Eagles. Joseph Valle scored his third goal of the season in the 67th minute, putting Eastern ahead 3-0. The Eagles put the cherry on the top with a Joshua Maughan goal in the 72nd minute, his second of the year.

“After our two losses last week, we tried to work on some things that we struggled with,” said sophomore wing Parker Huff. “I felt like our practices leading up to the CNCC game were really good because what we worked on was implemented in that game.”

On Thursday, September 23, the USU East- ern Eagles are in Redlands, California, to take on the Community Christian College Saints. This will be the first ever match-up between the Eagles and Saints. The Saints come into the match with a 0-4 record.

Huff says the Eagles are confident ahead of the match-up. “Going into our next games, we feel like the way we played against CNCC was a good building block for our upcoming games”.

On Saturday, the Eagles travel to Henderson, Nevada, to take on the College of Southern Nevada Coyotes. The Coyotes entered this week with a 3-4-1 record. Players to watch include sophomores Alfredo Diaz and Christopher Bramasco, who lead the Coyotes with 4 and 3 goals respectively.

The Eagles will rely on their defense to slow down the potent very Coyote offense.