Oct. 18, 2003
Stats
Pocatello, ID--Janel Smith sent a header into the Eastern Washington goal with less than four minutes left in the game to lift the Idaho State University Bengals over the Eagles by a 2-1 count in Big Sky Conference women's soccer action Saturday morning at Davis Field. The win broke a seven-game losing streak for the Bengals.
With the game tied at 1-1 late in the second half Jamie Meehan took a throw in from the far side of the field and sent the ball into a tightly back penalty area. The ball deflected off Chantel Kim, then Janel Smith and off an EWU defender before going into the goal for a 2-1 ISU lead at the 86:03 mark. The Bengals held from there to pick up their first Big Sky win of the season.
"It was nice to win, that's the bottom line," Head Coach Gordon Henderson said. "It wasn't the prettiest, but it's nice to get a reward for all the pressure we put on. We gifted two goals against Montana and gifted the first goal today. That's got to stop."
"To battle back and tie the game before the half was important. You begin to wonder if all the work you're doing is going to pay off."
The game started off on a completely note as EWU took the early lead. Less than five minutes into the match Kerstyn Dolack stole the ball from an ISU defender, dribbled the ball into the penalty area and took a shot that goalkeeper Shannon Boyle got a hand on, but couldn't stop, giving the Eagles a 1-0 lead.
Early on the Eagles had control of the game, outshooting the Bengals 6-3 in the first half. However ISU finally broke out of their scoring slump late in the first half when Ashli Kimenker took a free kick that she sent deep into the EWU box. The ball bounced toward goalkeeper Kristen Parnell, but no defenders moved towards the ball. Instead Jamie Meehan did and headed the ball past Parnell to tie things at 1-1 with just 6:14 left in the half. That goal broke a streak of 684 minutes without a goal for the Bengals.
ISU then took that momentum into the second half. Meehan, who scored her first goal of the season in the first half, nearly added to that total on two occasions. At the 54:20 mark of the second half she sent a throw into the box that was nearly headed into the goal by Chantel Kim, but Parnell made the save on the goal line. Then Meehan took a shot from about 10 yards out that hit off the crossbar, came down on the goal line, then was cleared out with just 13:50 left in the game.
With the win the Bengals improved to 5-8-1 overall and 1-2 in Big Sky Conference play, while the Eagles fell to 1-11-2 and 0-3. ISU will now embark on an important road trip starting Friday, October 24 when they head west to Portland, OR, to face the Portland State Vikings at 8:00 p.m. They follow that up with a game on Sunday, October 26 at Sacramento State at 2:00 p.m.
