Mountaineers climb over Murray to clinch tournament birth

Faced with a win or go home scenario, the Eastern men knew it was also "win and in" on Tuesday afternoon versus Murray State College to qualify for the Region 2 Tournament beginning Saturday, Oct. 27 in Miami, OK. The Mountaineers had been playing for their post season lives since their 2-1 double overtime victory over NEO last Wednesday. When they took the field versus Murray, the team understood they would have to climb over Murray into third place to reach the conference tournament, and that's exactly what they did.

Nearly 15 minutes into the first half, Chris Thorpe, one of the attacking heroes of the come from behind 2-2 double overtime tie with NOC just 24 hours earlier, fired a rocket into the roof of the visitors net after cutting across the six-yard box on a solo run. The score put Eastern on top and they never looked back. With 10 minutes before the break, Cadine Graham hooked up with his attacking partner for the second time in as many days and Thorpe slotted the ball past the Murray keeper to put Eastern on top 2-0 heading into halftime.

In the second half, the Mountaineers were able to get some more breathing room as Brandon Molina got on the end of a bouncing ball in the box that several Eastern players were hustling to finish. The 3-0 advantage would stand as the Mountaineers continued to pressure the Murray goal and the backline of Schulz, Huerta, Williams, and Diallo along with the efforts of goalkeeper Marc-Antoine Huzen earned their first shutout of the year. Eastern qualified for the Region 2 Tournament with the victory and the team was able celebrate briefly before heading into the weekend tournament.

Quick Kicks
- The Mountaineers are riding a 3-match unbeaten streak for the first time in 2 years.
- Chris Thorpe scored his 2nd and 3rd career goal making it 3 in 2 days.
- Marc-Antoine Huzen played all 90 minutes in goal, making nine saves and picking up his first shut-out of the season in the process.
- Eastern took 12 shots placing 7 shots on goal.

Notes From The Top
"I thanked our players prior to the match for their committment and effort this year and I continue to be grateful for all that they are sacrificing for each other. I am very proud of them for sticking together and sticking with it when the easy thing to do would've been to quit. Nobody believed in this group when we went to Richland 0-7 earlier in the year and knocked off a number one team and nobody believed in us when we started this 3-game stretch last week except the young men in this locker room and that's all that matters. This is a gritty team we have here and we need to stay healthy, happy, humble, and hungry," said Head Coach Jon Evan. "Murray is heading to the tournament too, that's a good team over there and they are quite capable of getting through to the final this weekend. We are definitely going to enjoy this for this evening and then we are going to get ready for a tough NOC team. We talk about great teams competing for championships, good players, making their teammates better, and good players making winning plays. We realize we are not a great team yet, but we are in position to compete for a championship and we've had guys stepping up to contribute all across the field and that's all you can ask for. I just hope we've saved a little something for the tournament."

What's Next
Eastern enters the Region 2 Tournament as the number 3 seed. The Mountaineers travel to Miami, OK on Saturday, Oct. 27 for a re-match with NOC, the 2 seed. The semifinal kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Rose State College faces Murray State College in the other semifinal, in the 1 vs 4 match up at 5 p.m. prior to the Eastern game.