MOREHEAD, Ky. – There was a point in Sunday's Morehead State-Little Rock women's soccer game at the Coleman Sports Complex in Little Rock, Ark., where the Eagles looked to have finally gotten on track.
Then, as has been the case many times this season, the wheels fell off and MSU found itself on the other end of a 4-1 decision, dropping the Blue and Gold for a season-high fifth consecutive time and falling to 0-8 on the road this fall, a nine-game overall skid in games away from home.
The Eagles have been outscored 18-2 on the road this season.
Conversely, Little Rock (5-3-5/3-0-3) extended its unbeaten streak to seven games and remained undefeated at home this season (3-0-3), while pushing its undefeated mark on its own field to 11 contests dating back to September of 2024.
"At 1-1, I thought our season was going to turn," said MSU head coach
Paul Cox. "But out of the four goals, I think they were all preventable, which is disappointing."
Morehead State (3-12-0/1-5-0) had its chances to get on the board, including a trio of point-blank opportunities in the first half. However, the Eagles were unable to capitalize. MSU finished the first 45 minutes with a 9-4 edge in shots.
"We were hands down the better team. (The) first half was our best half of the season. Created a bunch of chances. (We) should've gone into halftime with a lead," Cox added. "It doesn't matter if you're the better team when they have a quality striker who preys on mistakes."
And that's just what happened as Maria Schuller opened the scoring with a goal on Little Rock's first shot at 6:29.
Clair Silvestro stole the ball in the MSU defensive end, dribbled to the right corner and crossed the ball to the middle of the field where Schuller ran onto it jumped in front of Eagle redshirt sophomore goalkeeper
Sofia Rodriguez, and headed it into the middle of the goal from six yards out.
Morehead State got the equalizer in the 57th minute as freshman defender received a pass from junior defender/midfielder
Hannah Burke, who initially corralled a pass from graduate student midfielder
Karissa Vela. Burke played the ball forward and Peper ran onto it, sliding it past Trojan goalkeeper Peyton Urban toward the left post from 12 yards out. Both Burke and Vela were awarded assists.
"They had to adjust their shape to us in the second half," Cox said. "We made a quick sub putting Faith on and she got the goal."
However, things unraveled from there.
MSU surrendered goals in the 62nd, 73rd and 86th minutes to succumb to the defeat.
The Eagles sit in a precarious position with three games remaining in the regular season. They are in ninth place in the league standings, with the top eight teams earning bids to the conference tournament. The best news is that the Blue and Gold has played the top five teams already and its remaining contests come against the teams sitting sixth, seventh and eighth in the table. On the conference tally sheet, MSU has three points, with its next two opponents, UT Martin and SIU Edwardsville each standing with five.
Morehead State will host UT Martin on Thursday, Oct. 16 at 1 p.m. The Eagles will face SIUE that Sunday on the road in Edwardsville, Ill., and then host Southeast Missouri for their final game on Sunday, Oct. 26. The Ohio Valley Conference Tournament will begin on Thursday, Oct. 30.
