CHESTER, Pa. - Eastern University women's soccer fell to Widener 4-3 in the season opener on Thursday night. Emily Cole netted two goals, but the Pride managed to rally from a two-goal deficit late to stun the Eagles and escape with the win.

Eastern came out ready to play applying pressure early. After a scoreless opening ten minutes, Lydia Peachey netted the first goal of the season. Peachey finished off a pass from freshman Nicole Weenink to make the score 1-0. 

Emily Cole added to the lead in the 29th minute when she tallied her first goal of the season. Firing a shot from distance Cole arced the ball perfectly into the netting of the far post to extend the Eastern lead to 2-0. Widener would pull within one right before the half scoring on a breakaway to make it 2-1 heading into the locker room. 

"We put together some very good stretches of soccer in the first half," said Head Coach Dan Mouw. "We put ourselves in a good spot heading into the last quarter of the match."

Eastern continued to attack in the second half, and Cole capitalized stretching the lead to 3-1. In the 54th minute, Cole received a pass from Alondra Cervantes and dribbled around a charging goalkeeper passing the ball into an open net to tally her second goal of the match. 

However, the two-goal lead would not hold up as Widener rallied back to score three goals over the final 21 minutes and capture the win.

Overall the game was evenly played with the Eagles taking 13 total shots placing ten on net while Widener took 12 placing nine on net. Sophomore goalkeeper Adrianna Rowlands made five saves while Cole led the team with six shots with five of them on goal. 

"While the result was not what we were looking for, I think there was a lot that we can build on and some things that we saw that I think we can fix," concluded Mouw. "We will get right back at it on Saturday."

Eastern travels to Swarthmore on September 3rd for a 2:30 PM start.