EWU soccer seniors shine on senior day
Senior Allison Raniere during Sunday’s senior day victory over Idaho State. Raniere scored a goal and had two assists in the win. | Bailey Monteith for The Easterner
October 14, 2018
Scoring has not come easy for the EWU soccer team this season. The Eagles entered today’s home finale averaging 0.8 goals a game, and had only scored once in their last four games. Today, however, they took out their scoring frustrations on last place Idaho State University.
EWU exploded to score eight goals—a program record—against the Bengals in an 8-1 victory on senior day.
“We broke the seal early, and continued to go forward,” EWU head coach Chad Bodnar said. “We always knew this was going to come at some point. We have players who can do that. Today, we had a bunch of different players [score], which was nice.”
The Eagles’ eight goals came from seven different players. Three seniors, playing in their final home game as Eagles, got the scoring started for EWU.
First, in the ninth minute, a loose ball bounced into the box and senior Alexis Stephenson made a sliding play on it. She tipped it right in front of senior Devan Talley, who slid to shoot it into the back of the net.
For the second goal, ISU goalkeeper Katie Hogarth left the box to play an approaching loose ball, but she misjudged how close EWU senior Allison Raniere was to it. Raniere reached the ball at the same time as Hogarth, but outplayed Hogarth for it. Raniere dribbled it past her and shot it into an undefended net. Hogarth was still outside the box when the goal was scored.
The Eagles’ third goal was scored by senior Jenny Chaves off of a corner kick by Raniere. The goal put the Eagles up 3-0.
EWU’s seniors would then let the younger players take it from there. ISU did get a goal by freshman Delaney Johnston before halftime. After the break, EWU poured on five more goals.
Freshman Megan Drake had her first two goals of her collegiate career in the second half. Junior Saige Lyons, sophomore Emma Vanderhyden and sophomore Sariah Keister each added second-half goals for the Eagles.
“The season has been a struggle to this point,” Bodnar said. “But the kids still believe in themselves.”
The win puts the Eagles (2-4-1) at seven points in the standings. In BSC soccer, teams earn three points for a win, and one for a tie. The Eagles jump Sacramento State (six points), who lost to Portland State today. EWU is now tied with Montana for sixth place in the conference with two games remaining. The top six teams make the postseason.
The Eagles now travel to take on second-place Northern Arizona (5-0-2) on Oct. 19, before closing out regular season play against ninth-place Southern Utah on Oct. 21.
