MOREHEAD | The Morehead State soccer team will be looking for its first victory of the season on Thursday as it visits longtime foe Eastern Kentucky at 4 p.m. at the EKU Soccer Field in Richmond, Ky.
The series is known as the "Bluegrass Cup" and Thursday's meeting marks the 17th incarnation of the event. The two teams met in Morehead last fall for an exhibition game, which EKU won 1-0, but the last regular-season outing came in 2021.
It will be the third and final road contest to start the Eagles' season. The Blue and Gold is 3-2-1 in its last six official games, all of which were away from home.
Eastern Kentucky (0-2-0) has had the upper hand as of late, winning four of the last five meetings and tying the fifth. However, Morehead State (0-1-1) leads the all-time series 8-6-2.
"(We're) excited to play an in-state rival and to compete for the Bluegrass Cup," said MSU's first-year head coach Paul Cox. "We know they're a hard-working team that have a distinctive style; we feel prepared and are looking forward to playing again!"
MSU has largely relied upon newcomers so far this season, including starting three freshmen: goalkeeper
Claire Cress (1.11 goals against average, .750 save percentage, 0-1-1 record, 162:06 minutes), defender
Marinna Campos (158 minutes) and forward
Ava Peck (one assist, two shots, 127 minutes). The Eagles are likely to have senior forward
Erin Fite and freshman forward
Carly Gilbert back in action after the two have only been available for limited minutes to date.
As a team, the Eagles are averaging 0.50 goals per game, while allowing 1.5 gpg. Morehead State has been outshot 33 to 11, with their opponents holding a 13-4 edge in corner kicks. Both MSU and its foes have been whistled 20 times, while the opposition has been flagged offside 10 times to just to two for the Eagles.
Morehead State's defense has been stellar. Despite the ball spending most of the last two games on their own side of the field, the Eagles have held their foes to just 11 shots on goal and two live-ball scores.
Cress earned her first career start in the net against Kentucky and came away with five saves. Freshman forward
Carlie Thurmond has the team's lone goal to date, while redshirt sophomore
Jade Perrin leads the squad in shots with four. Graduate student defender
Anna Lohrer and sophomore midfielder
Mary Trudeau have been the stalwarts for the Eagles, having played every minute of both games. Junior midfielder
Kennedy Baquero (171 minutes), sophomore forward
Hedda Ornberg (167 minutes) and junior defender
Gracen Houck (165 minutes) have also played major roles.
Thursday will be the home opener for Eastern Kentucky, which dropped road outings with Miami (Ohio) 4-0 last Thursday and East Tennessee State 1-0 on Sunday. Last fall, the Colonels finished 3-3-3 on the EKU Soccer Field and enter the MSU contest with a 1-1 tie against Florida Gulf Coast as their last outing and having been unbeaten in five of their last six games.
This season, Eastern Kentucky has been outscored 5-0 and outshot 42-17. Opponents have an 8-6 edge in corner kicks. EKU has been whistled for 22 fouls and flagged once for being offside. Its foes have recorded 20 fouls and four offside calls.
Freshman forward Ana Manning leads the team with five shots, with freshman forward Ella Grode registering three and senior forward Gretta Bunn notching two. EKU has a deep bench. Although no player has played all 180 minutes, 19 Colonels have seen the field in both of their games.
Senior goalkeeper Marah Krick has started both contests, has an 0-2-0 record, a 3.33 gaa and five saves.
EKU won the most recent regular-season meeting 2-0 at home in the spring of 2021. The two teams tied 0-0 in double overtime in Morehead in the game prior to that. Three of the last four contests have gone to overtime. The series in Richmond is tied 4-4, with the Colonels having won the last three. MSU's last victory at Eastern Kentucky (3-1) came in 2014. Over the 16 total meetings, MSU has outscored EKU 32-18.
The game will be broadcast on ESPN + and can be seen at the link
https://bit.ly/3XeerEs. Fans can also follow the play-by-play action through StatBroadcast at the link
https://bit.ly/4dUxhWW.
MSU will have its home opener on Sunday at 1 p.m. as Detroit Mercy comes to town. Following that, the Eagles will be on the road for their next two contests.
