Eastern’s women’s soccer team won 2-1 against the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks in its fourth Ohio Valley Conference game Thursday at Lakeside Field.
The game winning goal was scored by sophomore forward Abby Reinl in the 84th minute with a shot outside of the box with her left foot, which is her weak foot.
This marks Reinl’s fourth goal of the season and her third goal in four games. This goal also marks her outscoring herself last season.
“I’m ecstatic, it wasn’t just that moment,” Reinl said. “We worked really hard, and we have been all season and I’m glad that it showed off finally in the field.”
The first goal of the game was scored by Eastern’s sophomore forward Alex Tetteh in the eighth minute. This marks Tetteh’s fourth goal of the season, her first since her hat trick five weeks ago against the University of Illinois Springfield.
This goal also marks Tetteh surpassing her goal count from last season.
The second goal of the match was scored by SEMO’s sophomore midfielder Justi Nelson in the 24th minute of the game.
Both Tetteh and Reinl now share the team lead in goals for Eastern, both sitting at four goals apiece.
Both goals came from an assist by junior midfielder Kate Germano.
“I’m just excited because I feel like we really needed the win going into this weekend, so it was really exciting to be a part of both of those goals that led us to the win,” Germano said.
Germano’s two assists increases her assists throughout the season to three, and she now has the most assists for the Panthers in the 2024 season so far.
Although Eastern came out with the win in today’s game, there were still some flaws in the game. Especially after the SEMO goal. Eastern seemed to be playing a more passive game and falling back into their shell whenever they were pressed by the Redhawks offense until halftime.
Although the Panthers fixed this problem coming out of halftime.
Another problem that Eastern faced throughout the game was its inability to effectively switch play, meaning passing the ball laterally across the field to a teammate in more space
“It was something that I was a little disappointed in,” Eastern’s head coach Dirk Bennett said.
If Eastern improves in this section of their game, it will greatly benefit its offense. Throughout the game players like Tetteh and Reinl were getting open on the wings but Eastern just couldn’t make switch play fast enough.
Eastern will be playing its next game away against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
It will be their fifth Ohio Valley Conference game. Their next home game will be against Western Illinois at Lakeside Field, and that game will also serve as the program’s senior night.
After today’s game, Eastern’s record now sits at 3-5-5 overall and 1-1-2 in conference play. Today’s victory also brought Eastern up to four points in the OVC standings. This game also brings the Redhawks to a record of 0-8-1 overall and 0-2-1 in the conference.
Emerson Reynolds can be reached at 581-2812 or at etreynolds@eiu.edu.
