ST. DAVIDS, Pa.- For the first 108 minutes, everything was working perfectly. Eastern University Women's Soccer dropped a heart-breaking 1-0 decision when the visiting Misericordia Cougars (12-2-1, 4-0 Freedom) scored the only goal of the match with 90 seconds to play in the second overtime.

From the outset, the Eagles were intent on breaking the rhythm of a Cougar attack that had outscored Freedom Conference opponents 19-0 in the opening three games of the schedule. The No. 12 Cougars had their chances, but Eastern goalkeeper Elayna Simpson was spectacular throughout the afternoon. 

The sophomore backstop was most impressive in the first few minutes. She made a clean catch on point blank volley from Megan Lannigan in the 9th minute. Two minutes later, she made a spectacular diving save on a Meghan Mahoney breakaway attempt.

"We needed Elayna to be great in a couple situations today, " head Coach Dan Mouw said after the game, "and really, she was better than that. If either of those two balls get in early, the game changes. She kept us in the game with those and then was very good handling the other chances after that. I think the 13 saves is impressive, but it is not as impressive as looking at the whole big picture of what she can allow us to do."

Simpson made four saves in the first half. The Eagles' one chance in the period came on a restart from nine yards outside of the box. Emily Roquemore's shot drifted just wide of the upper corner.

"We knew going in that we wanted to play for a critical chance and keep a clean sheet, " Mouw added. "it wasn't pretty, and we knew that there might be some crazy discrepencies in shots at the end of the game. Yesterday in practice we talked about eliminating their chances in the critical scoring area and for the most part we did well with that. When we broke down, Elayna was there."  

The second half saw the Eagles continue to disrupt and look for counter-attacking chances. The Cougars fired eight more shots in the second half, but only a few presented serious danger. The scariest chance early came on a 25 yard shot from Alicia Mocion against the motion of the play. The ball seemed ticket for the lower left corner of the goal, but Simpson reacted well to parry it around the post. 

The Eagles were more adventurous going forward in the second half, but remained committed to defending. The strategy almost paid off in full on a restart chance from 28 yards out. Roquemore again took the shot, but Misericordia keeper Maureen Ciccosanti touched the ball over the bar for an Eastern corner. 

Simpson made three big saves in the final  ten minutes of regulation to send the game to overtime for the third time in the last five meetings between the two teams.

The Eagles defended three straight corners in the opening minutes of the overtime and Simpson made two more stops.

The Cougars finally found the game-winner with 90 seconds to play. Mahoney found the smallest amount of space at the top of the box on a pass from Megan Lannigan. The junior took a quick touch with her left and smashed a low right-footed shot just inside the back post for the game-winner. 

"It took a tremendous shot to beat us today," Mouw concluded. "Even that shot was only inches outside of Elayna's reach and only inches from going wide. I was pleased with the way we executed a game-plan today and hope that we can gain some momentum from the positives of today. Taylor Ward played very well in her first collegiate start, and I felt like our young players adjusted as the game went forward."

The Eagles (3-9-2, 1-2-1 Freedom) will travel to Delaware Valley College for a critical Freedom Conference test on Wednesday.

Box Score