After a five-game road trip to open the season, the Ball State University soccer team greatly welcomed a home match Sunday afternoon. The Cardinals got their first win of the season, beating SIU-Edwardsville 3-2.
"We won. The monkey is finally off our back," coach Michael Lovett said. "After awhile we start doubting ourselves that we can win. This win proved to us we are a good team."
The Cardinals came off the opening kickoff with an attacking mindset. Freshman Paige Stroinski scored off a cross pass from Missy Gordon in the 2nd minute of the match to put Ball State up 1-0.
Ball State struck again in the 20th minute when freshman Maggie Brown broke away from the defense and beat the goalkeeper to tap in a goal to put Ball State up 2-0. The score remained at halftime.
SIU-Edwardsville rallied early in the second half with a goal in the 58th minute when freshman goalkeeper Nicole Wood was beat on a breakaway. In the 66th minute, captain Megan Ridley scored off a free kick just outside the 18-yard box to give the Cardinals a two-goal advantage again.
"The game was coming down to the wire and I knew I had to get the ball in," Ridley said. "It was something Jacki [Eft] and I thought up. It wasn't a set play or anything."
SIU-Edwardsville didn't flinch after Ridley's goal, scoring on another breakaway in the 69th minute to put the match within a single goal again. The Cougars would put on another rally in the last 10 minutes of the game, getting four corners in that time frame to try to even the match, but the Cardinals' defense was able to stop the rally.
"The last ten minutes were the worst part of the match," Lovett said. "We couldn't finish them off by getting control of the ball. We have to finish games and we will have to work on doing that."
The first win of the season gives the Cardinals confidence that they can continue to do well the rest of the season.
"We want to keep winning," Ridley said. "We want this to continue for the remainder of the season. No one likes to lose games."
SIU-Edwardsville held a 7-3 advantage in corner kicks and an 11-9 advantage in shots during the match. With four of Edwardsville's corners coming in the last 10 minutes of the match, Lovett said he is not worried about that statistic.
"We played with confidence today and we were able to finally score," Lovett said. "The team is very pleased we were able to put together a confidence building performance in front of our home fans and finally get a win."
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