The Eastern Michigan University women’s soccer team extended its winning streak to three games Friday, as the team defeated the Northern Illinois Huskies handily, 4-1.
Junior forward Angela Vultaggio tallied a goal as well as an assist, giving her the team lead with points (14) and goals (5). Senior midfielder Stephanie Clarke, junior defender Emily Dzik and forward Bianca Rossi each scored a goal as well, while freshman defender Rachel Washburn had an assist, and junior defender Marisa Kozikowski had two. Northern Illinois sophomore forward Nicole Gobbo scored the lone goal.
Sophomore goalkeeper Megan McCabe played well, only giving up one goal while saving three.
“Defensively, we have a good response every time we score a goal, when we score, we don’t sit back, we continue pushing forward,” McCabe said.
EMU coach Scott Hall was impressed with his team’s play against NIU.
“I think we were pretty good all over the field today, our defense created turnovers that lead to goals, and our attacking players went out and got goals, it’s a good start to the conference,” Hall said.
The game was pretty physical from the onset, which Hall was visibly distraught about, letting the referees hear about it. The defense was pretty stout from both teams early, each team getting a couple opportunities to score early, but to no avail.
EMU had a corner kick in the fifth minute of play; it was almost kicked in but saved by NIU goalkeeper Amy Carr. It wasn’t until the 19th minute that Rossi scored past a diving Carr, to put the Eagles on the board.
Two minutes later, Vultaggio scored a header off an assist from Kozikowski. Physical play continued until 15 seconds left in the first half, Dzik scored an acrobatic header off a free kick. This led to the Eagles going into halftime with a commanding 3-0 lead.
The second half began with much of the same intensity from both teams. The Huskies managed to score first, Gabbo, with nothing but the goalkeeper in front of her scored from the left side of the box past a diving McCabe.
This would be all the Eagles defense would give up for the rest of the game. In the 65th minute of play, the physicality would lead to a penalty shot, which Clarke would capitalize. This gave EMU a 4-1 lead to which would be the game’s final score.
“I think we were pretty good all over the field today, our defense created turnovers that lead to goals, and our attacking players went out and got goals, it’s a good start to the conference,” Hall said.
The solid performance came on the first game of “Eagles Unite” campaign, encouraging students to embrace and cheer on all of EMU’s 21 varsity sports. The game also gave the Eagles an even 4-4-1 overall record, as well as a 1-0 conference record.
Looking Ahead:
EMU looks to increase their winning streak to four games, as they take on the University of Toledo Rockets (3-6) to wrap up their five-game home stand at Scicluna Field.
Game time starts at 1 p.m.
“Toledo’s a different animal,” Hall said. “Toledo’s a good team, well coached, well organized, coming off a loss to Western Michigan, they’re (Toledo) going to be ready.”
