Eagles Blank Northern Michigan, Move Into Second Place

Eagles Blank Northern Michigan, Move Into Second Place

The Ashland University women's soccer team scored twice in each half and maintained a clean sheet as the Eagles turned back visiting Northern Michigan, 4-0, on Friday (Oct. 19) night at Ferguson Field.

The Eagles (9-2-4, 4-1-2 GLIAC) secured their place in the GLIAC Tournament with the win and moved into a tie for second place in the league standings with two matches to play.

"It's a great team result," said AU interim head coach Taylor Clarke. "We did exactly what we talked about throughout the week. We wanted to be more aggressive in the way that we attack and create chances in different ways than we had been."

Ashland wasted little time in getting on the board in the seventh minute as freshman Bella Petrock intercepted a missed clearance and rocketed a shot into the near post upper-90 for her second goal of the season.

The Eagles continued to threaten throughout the half and Petrock made it 2-0 in the 30th minute. Redshirt-junior Sydney Wright sent a ball over the top for freshman Faith Lewis, who had her shot bounce off the left post before Petrock cleaned up the rebound with a tap-in. Wright now has three assists and Lewis has two on the season.

The Eagles, who out-shot the Wildcats (4-9-2, 1-6 GLIAC) by an 18-5 margin, scored twice off corner kicks in the second half to put the game away.

"Tonight showed that we can create goals in different ways," Clarke said. "We felt teams have been starting to figure us out and we felt we had to break teams down in different ways by gaining possession and territory. We talked gaining territory in different ways this week and we did that tonight."

Lewis rose above everyone else in the 70th minute off a corner by sophomore Abby Grzetic to record her fourth goal of the season. It was Grzetic's first assist.

Freshman Stephanie Slader capped the scoring with her own header off a corner kick by freshman Mary Grace Haney in the 88th minute. It was Slader's first career goal and Haney now holds the team lead with four assists.

Sophomore goalkeeper Hannah Lee made four saves in the game to earn her seventh win of the season. NMU keeper Emma Vermette made seven saves.

The Eagles will now welcome Michigan Tech to Ferguson Field at noon on Sunday (Oct. 21) in the penultimate game of the regular season.

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