By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – A flood of offense and a relentless attack propelled the Tennessee Tech soccer team to a 4-1 win at Southern Indiana Sunday afternoon, as the Golden Eagles (4-7-4, 4-1-0) claimed their fourth consecutive Ohio Valley Conference victory at Strassweg Field.
The Screaming Eagles (2-8-4, 1-2-2) were quick to make their mark on the match, immediately leaping out to a 1-0 advantage with a marker in the fifth minute of play. USI's Payton Seymour took a cross from Emerson Grafton and just found the touch before Tech's Maggie Conrad could reach the ball and stop the attempt.
The Golden Eagle defense held strong from that point on, limiting the home team to just one more shot the remainder of the half and providing enough time for the Tech offense to get its footing. After about 20 minutes, the purple and gold found its first opening and struck.
In the 25th minute, the Cookeville crew lined up for a corner kick on the right side of USI's portion of the pitch. Lucia Cuadra flicked a rainbow into the center of the box and Claire Palya paired the pass with a perfect header into the lower left corner of the net.
The goal marked the first of the Chattanooga transfer's Tech tenure and provided Cuadra with her fifth assist of the season. From that point on, the floodgates opened for the purple and gold and the offense took off.
Less than three minutes later, in the 28th minute, the Golden Eagles struck again, this time from a pair of skilled touches and some gorgeous footwork by Neve Renwick. Junior forward Katie Toney directed a pass from her noggin over to Cuadra, who directed a long touch pass to Renwick.
The sophomore forward beat the pair of defenders in front of her and smashed a shot past the GK on the near left side for her eighth marker of the season. Toney picked up her second assist of the year while Cuadra snagged her second of the match and OVC-leading sixth of the season.
Far from finished, the Cookeville crew continued to press its way upfield and collect its third goal in 10 minutes. Toney battled with a pair of USI defenders deep on the far right side of the pitch, claiming the ball from a small scrum, and taking it down to the goal line before firing a cross back into the box.
Rookie forward Natalie Howard hauled in the pass and immediately flicked the ball over to a wide-open Cuadra. The graduate transfer split the pipes with a curved approach into the top left corner of the net, past the outstretched hands of a leaping USI goalkeeper.
For Cuadra, it was her fourth point of the match and third goal of the season. Toney picked up her second helper of the day and third of the year while Howard earned her first point of the season.
In the second half, the Golden Eagles did a fine job of keeping the Screaming Eagles from getting anything going on offense. USI attempted just three shots in the second stanza, including one on goal. Conrad, who picked up her fourth win of the season and in a row, made the stop for her lone save of the day.
With under two minutes to play in the match, Tech picked up a nifty little tally to put an exclamation point on the day, with Renwick behind it all. As the Golden Eagles worked on clearing the ball from their zone, Renwick poked the ball away from the last line of USI's pressing defensive line.
The striker chased the ball down and was off to the races, sprinting all the way to the penalty-kick marker in the Southern Indiana box and crushing a no-doubter past a helpless goalkeeper caught in a horrific, one-on-one match-up with the top scorer in the league.
Renwick's ninth tally of the year tied her for the sixth most in a single season in program history. Her 20 points on the year are tied for 10th.
The Golden Eagles return to action on Sunday, Oct. 13 with a home match against SIUE at 1:00 p.m. at Tech Soccer Field.
File photo by Jim Dillon
