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By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter 

Eastern defends its Big Sky Conference soccer crown

Eagles break open scoreless game with second half penalty kicks

 

Last updated 11/9/2017 at 10:54am

EWU

Eastern Washington defended its Big Sky Conference soccer title and move on to the NCAA tournament.

It took a while, well into the second half, but Eastern Washington finally broke the ice - literally to some extent - to score late goals for a 3-0 win over the University of Northern Colorado to claim the 2017 Big Sky Conference soccer championship for a second consecutive year.

Played in a constant snowstorm, the Eagles ended a scoreless drought, getting goals from a pair of penalty kicks in the 62nd and 75th minutes from Savannah Hoekstra and Chloe Williams. Alexis Stephenson finished the scoring in the 78th minute on a shot that caromed off the UNC keeper.

Eastern, the 2016 conference champs, will face the University of Southern California in the first round of the NCAA College Cup tournament as the Big Sky's automatic berth Saturday in Los Angeles. It's a rematch of their first-round opponent whom they lost to, 3-1.

"The seniors have worked extremely hard over the last four years and the new kids have come in and also worked extremely hard," EWU head coach Chad Bodnar said. "There is just confidence in this group and they have had it throughout the whole course of the year, whether the results were good or not."

Hoekstra was fouled inside the box and made her shot just to the right of UNC keeper Madeline Burdick. Williams was also fouled inside the box and connected for her 43rd career goal, expanding the Big Sky mark set earlier. Stephenson's goal came as she deflected a shot on goal from Emma Vanderhyden.

Eastern dominated from the opening whistle outshooting the visitors 8-1 in the first 45 minutes but went to the halftime break scoreless. For the game the Eagles outshot the Bears 16-3 with 12 shots on goal.

Eagles' keeper Emily Busselman collected her first and only save of the game in the 67th minute. With the win she improved her record to 14-2-1 overall.

Eastern appeared to have scored early, just six minutes in, when Devan Talley converted a pass from Hoekstra, but the play was ruled offsides.

The snow threatened to postpone the title match to Nov. 6 and forced the Eagles to play the first half more cautiously.

"We came out and played a little more conservative in the first half," Bodnar said. "Credit to our grounds crew on coming out and plowing the field and making it super playable, it made for a good final."

With the three goals, the team now holds the record for most goals scored in a single season with 47, breaking the previous mark of 44 set last season. EWU improves their best record in program history to 16-5-1 overall while Northern Colorado finishes 13-7-2 overall.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.

 

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