Junior defender Kya Trejo scored her first goal at Eastern Illinois University on Thursday.

However, she said she doesn’t care about the goal as much as she does the win. Especially when it’s against an opponent Eastern has yet to beat in 22 years. 

“I mean, it’s cool to score,” Trejo said. “Like it was exciting, but honestly, I really couldn’t have cared less if it was me or somebody else.” 

Valparaiso University’s last loss to Eastern’s soccer team was in 2002. Trejo said most of the team was not even born yet when that happened. 

Eastern has had this game circled, as Valparaiso made it to the national tournament last year and tied with Eastern a year ago. 

“I know like we do like match identities before the game, and one of our words was vengeance,” Trejo said.

Vengeance was on the team’s mind all game as they were able to overcome their defense’s mistakes. 

Eastern gave up 15 shots in total. Valparaiso was putting the pressure on, but Trejo knew they just had to relax and stay calm. 

“I think for us it was just learning how to be calm,” Trejo said. “I think we were panicked, and especially after the goal, we kind of took a dive in terms of defense.”

Trejo said she knows that even though she scored a goal, defense is key. She couldn’t let herself get unfocused even if it was her first goal of her college career.  

Even with that, Trejo made sure to celebrate hard with her teammates. This is Trejo’s third year at Eastern, and she has made connections with many other players as they were so happy to see her succeed. 

“Avery Richardson said she cried because she was so excited, and I know Brooklynn Greene who’s like, I don’t know, she’s kind of been my buddy along the way,” Trejo said. “So, I feel like just like getting to share a moment like that, I feel like they were just as happy if not happier for me to get it.” 

Trejo knows the team must return to practice and keep the vibes up, and they want to ride this win into the upcoming games. 

“So, I think just having that win following us into it is enough momentum in itself to just want us to be like, ok, how can we set that up again?” Trejo said. “I think in practice just keeping the good vibes up hopefully and then keeping it into Sunday.” 

At the end of the day for Trejo, it’s about winning. She does not usually get the chance to score, but if she does, she will take it. Even then she just wants to do her job and help get Eastern the win at the end of the day. 

Even with the big win and the big goal, for Trejo, she said she is just worried about the next game.

Eastern plays University of Purdue Fort Wayne on Sunday at 4 p.m.

Patrick Schmitz can be reached at 581-2812 or at pfschmitz@eiu.edu.