STATESBORO - Georgia Southern women's soccer tallied four first-half goals for the first time since 2018 in notching its fifth straight win, defeating Marshall by a 4-1 score in Sun Belt Conference action on Thursday evening at Eagle Field.
The Eagles (10-5, 5-3 SBC) also reached double digit wins for the second time in the last three seasons with the victory, achieving the 13th double-digit winning season in program history. Marshall falls to 6-8-1 overall and 1-7 in the league with the loss. Georgia Southern returns to action on Sunday, traveling to Harrisonburg, Va., to take on James Madison at 1 p.m.
Georgia Southern opened the flurry of first-half scoring in the 15th minute. Sophomore Bri Conley received the ball high and found herself in a 2-on-2 situation with junior Smith Cathey. Conley fed a through ball to Cathey into the left side of the box and Cathey finished upper ninety for the 1-0 lead.
Senior Simone Timm then doubled the lead for the Eagles in the 26th minute, heading in a corner kick from Isabel Kopp for her seventh goal of the season and her fifth straight match with a goal. She is the first Eagle to score a goal in five straight matches since Robin Thirsk accomplished the feat from Oct. 11-Nov. 3, 1998, nearly 25 years ago.
Marshall pulled one back as Abi Hugh's cross from the left side found Hannah Telleysh alone on the far post for an easy point-blank finish in the 29th minute, making the score 2-1.
The Eagles scored twice in a four-minute stretch near the end of the first half to take a 4-1 lead into halftime. First, it was senior Sade Heinrichs scoring from long range in the 37th minute, then redshirt junior Elis Nemtsov finished around a diving goalkeeper off of a feed from senior Faith Phillips in the 41st minute for her first goal of the season.
"It's something we've talked about for a while," Georgia Southern head women's soccer coach Chris Adams said about the first-half scoring output. "To have that instinct to put teams away when you have the opportunity. In our previous game at Southern Miss, we outshot them 14-3 in the first half, but two minutes into the second half and it's a 1-1 game. I think we learned something from that Southern Miss game, carried it over here, went ahead and got multiple goals to put our opponent away in the first half."
It was the first time the Eagles have scored four goals in a half since Georgia Southern tallied four second-half goals in a 7-2 win over ULM on September 28, 2018.
Georgia Southern enjoyed a 13-5 edge in shots in the first half, and even though the Eagles outshot the Thundering Herd by a 19-2 margin in the second half, no goals were scored after the break.
Quinn Wilson made three saves in net to notch the win for the Eagles in 70 minutes of action. Ashlyn Drayer made nine saves in net for the Herd. Georgia Southern had a 7-3 edge in corner kicks and the Eagles were whistled for six fouls and one offsides on the night, while Marshall was whistled for five fouls.
