MOREHEAD, Ky. – Home standing Radford scored with just over 17 minutes to play in Sunday's women's soccer contest to send the Highlanders to a 2-1 victory over Morehead State at the Tom Lillard Field at Cupp Stadium in Radford, Va.
Freshman
Jade Walton scored for the Eagles at the 46:40 mark, but Radford (3-2-1) tallied two goals later in the contest to extend the hosts unbeaten streak to three games.
Morehead State (2-5-0) dropped its fourth straight road outing and are currently 0-3 away from home this season.
Despite the setback, MSU coach
Paul Cox was pleased with his defensive performance for the second straight game.
"We were very, very solid, especially defensively," he said. "Two special strikes won them the game. We have to be better with the ball in the final third, but (it is) massive progress from last week."
The Eagles only allowed two goals this week, after surrendering 10 over the previous seven days.
In the first half, Morehead State was outshot 7-2 and surrendered eight corner kicks as Radford dominated every phase of the game. MSU only had the ball in the Highlanders defensive side of the field for just eight percent of the opening 45 minutes.
However, the momentum changed less than two minutes after halftime as Walton was able to score on a counterattack. Junior defender
Hannah Carter started the play with a long kick forward after stealing the ball inside the MSU box. Sophomore forward
Carlie Thurmond ran onto the ball, took one short dribble and played the ball to Walton on her left. Walton took one long dribble and unleashed a shot from 32 yards just left of the middle of the field then went past Radford goalkeeper Lexi Radvanyi and inside the right post.
The lead was short lived as Radford tallied the equalizer 59 seconds later. The Highlanders stole the ball in the MSU end, steals ball in MSU end as Paige Olson dumped the ball off to Lilly Short, who took short dribbles, before passing it back to Olson. The senior forward who had an assist in last year's 1-1 tie in Morehead, took two short dribbles to midfield and from 23 yards out from right of middle of field to unleash her shot into the upper left corner.
Radford had several point-blank attempts to score again in the second half, but MSU sophomore goalkeeper
Claire Cress was up to the challenge for most of the afternoon. She left her feet to make three dramatic saves in the second half and was fortunate to escape an additional pair of Radford attempts, one that went off the crossbar and another that was kicked just on the outside of the left post.
The Eagle defense made a few errant passes that set up Radford chances before the hosts got the go-ahead score at the 72:57 mark. After a free kick near midfield, Caitlyn Nottingham found Ary Oliver in the middle of the field. Oliver then had a one-touch pass to Abby Walsh about 20 yards from the net just outside the left corner of the penalty box. Walsh took two dribbles curled around and placed a shot into the upper right corner of the goal.
Morehead State finished the day with eight shots, but only two were on frame. The Highlanders tallied 19 shots, including 19 in the second half, with a total of nine on goal.
Graduate student midfielder
Karissa Vela and Thurmond both had a pair of attempts. Radford had three players with four shots: Olson, Short and Jashyra Johnson. Olson and Short both had three on goal.
Cress finished with seven saves, the fourth game this season where she had to make at least six. Radvanyi registered one save for the hosts.
In addition to its 19-8 advantage in shots, the Highlanders also took all 11 of the contest's corner kicks. RU was whistled 11 times to just seven for the Eagles. The hosts drew both offside calls. Walton had the game's lone yellow card.
Radford held possession for 54 percent of the afternoon. It also was in the MSU defensive half for 64 percent of its time with the ball and the final 36 percent of its time in the top half of its side of the field.
The Blue and Gold had the ball for 46 percent of the game, 83 percent of which was in its defensive dies of the field.
Radford raised its record in the series to 3-0-1, including a 2-0 mark at home.
The Eagles return to Morehead to host Bellarmine on Thursday at 7 p.m., before going on the road for one final non-conference match at Cleveland State next Sunday.
