MOREHEAD, Ky. – Freshman forward
Lily Burt scored in the 69th minute in Thursday's Morehead State-Tennessee Tech women's soccer game at the MSU Soccer Field in Morehead to end the Eagles' three-game scoring drought, but the Golden Eagles recorded four goals to come away with the win.
Morehead State (3-11-0/1-4-0) dropped its fourth straight game, its longest such skid of the season, and fell to 3-5 at home.
Tennessee Tech (3-6-6/3-0-2) extended its unbeaten streak to five games and raised its road record to 2-3-3 this season. The Golden Eagles won for the first time in Morehead since March of 2021.
The visitors scored in the 21st and 62nd minutes to build a 2-0 lead before Burt's tally. Her goal snapped a scoreless streak that reached 390 minutes and 45 seconds.
Tech began the scoring at 20:03 when Tori Soutuyo faked her way past the Eagle defender and passed the ball from the right corner to the middle of the field where the ball landed at the feet of Lucia Cuadra, who kicked it on the ground to the right post from seven yards out.
The second goal came after Cuadra stole the ball in the Eagle defensive zone. After passing the ball forward, she got it right back, took a dribble to her right and from 25 yards out on the left side slid a through ball between two Eagle defenders, where Katie Toney ran onto it and slid the ball under charging MSU goalkeeper
Claire Cress from six yards out on the left side.
Literally, just seconds after entering the game in the second half, Burt scored after receiving a long ball forward from junior midfielder/defender
Hannah Burke on the right side near the Eagle sideline. Burt ran onto the ball, took one dribble and from 16 yards out, just steps off the end line, blasted what at first appeared to be a cross, but in fact sailed over the head of TTU goalkeeper Maggie Conrad and into the upper left-hand corner of the goal.
It was just the second shot of the season for Burt.
The Eagles had one other outstanding scoring chance when freshman forward
Jade Walton took a pass from freshman midfielder/defender
Hailey Repreza left of the center of the field steps outside of the penalty box. Walton then tried to fake out her defender with her back facing the goal, before spinning around and with her right foot unleashed a rocket that ricochetted off the crossbar at 33:30.
The Golden Eagles added two more goals in the 72nd and 82nd minutes.
Goal three came after Cuadra stole the ball deep in the Eagle defensive end. She then dropped a pass back to Reagan Smiley, whose shot from nine yards out on the left side was headed to the upper right corner of the goal, before deflecting off freshman defender
Olivia Lowe causing it to change course and go in the net on the left side.
The final goal came after another MSU turnover on its defensive third this time by Cheyenne McCloud, who took two short dribbles before passing the ball to Natalie Howard on her right, who took a shot from 16 yards on the right side out that went off the hands of sophomore goalkeeper
Claire Cress
Morehead State outshot its opponent for the fourth time this year and in back-to-back games for the first time this fall. The Eagles finished with 14 shots to 13 for the Golden Eagles. Tennessee Tech had more corner kicks (4-2) and saves (6-5), while MSU had more fouls (10-9) and the lone offside flag. Neither team received a card.
TTU held a 55-45 percentage edge in time of possession. The visitors were on the attack for 57 percent of their time with the ball, while the hosts held the ball on the Tech defensive side of the field for 44 percent of the time.
Walton took a game-high five shots. Graduate student midfielder and freshman midfielder/defender
Addison Petry both finished with two. Tennessee Tech's Natalie Howard led her side with three shots.
Cress made five saves in 82 minutes and 25 seconds before yielding to redshirt sophomore
Sofia Rodriguez. Cress allowed all four goals and fell to 3-10. Rodriguez played the final seven minutes and 35 seconds but did not make a save.
Conrad earned the win to improve to 3-6-6. She made six saves while playing all 90 minutes.
Morehead State remains in ninth place in the Ohio Valley Conference standings with the top eight teams earning a bid to the postseason tournament. MSU has four games remaining in the regular season.
On a positive note, Burt's goal was the Eagles' seventh this year, which is significant because the fewest number of goals MSU has scored in a non-Covid season was 10.
Morehead State goes on the road to face Little Rock on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET and returns home to host UT Martin for Homecoming Weekend on Thursday, Oct. 16 at 1 p.m.
