Montana wins, sweeps road trip

Sunday, October 17

Cheney, Wash.

2 PM (MT)

Montana

9-5-1, 5-1-1BSC

Eastern Washington

5-11-0, 3-5-0BSC

Montana

Eastern Washington

Photos: Eastern Washington Athletics

10/17/2021 5:43:00 PM | Soccer

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana soccer team finished off a sweep of its final regular-season road trip and locked in a spot to next month's Big Sky Conference Championship with a commanding 2-0 victory over Eastern Washington on Sunday afternoon in Cheney.

The Grizzlies (9-5-1, 5-1-1 BSC), who are 8-1-1 over their last 10 matches, got two goals from freshman Skyleigh Thompson and didn't allow the Eagles (5-11-0, 3-5-0 BSC) a shot until the 63rd minute.

The shutout was the ninth of the season for redshirt freshman Camellia Xu, who needed to make just a single save to move within one of the single-season program record of 10 shutouts.

Montana opened its road trip with a 2-1 victory at Idaho on Friday night, outshooting the Vandals 22-7. The Grizzlies outshot the Eagles 19-4 on Sunday while holding 57 percent of the possession.

And now Montana has scored multiple goals in consecutive matches for the first time this season. Everything is starting to click as the postseason nears.

"I'm pretty happy with the way things are going right now," said coach Chris Citowicki. "We played really well.

"We got to cycle through the bench a little bit today, and Skye scored two goals, a freshman who's stepping up to the moment and scoring classic Skye goals, with a ton of power."

Thompson scored her second goal of the season in the 15th minute to make it 1-0. She sealed her defender behind her, collected a pass from Sydney Haustein, turned and ripped a line drive under the crossbar that EWU goalkeeper Kelsee Winston had no chance of stopping.

"Not only does she have the speed to get behind you, she has the physicality to just hold you off and turn and shoot. I'm very happy with her," said Citowicki.

Montana outshot Eastern Washington 8-0 in the first half, then put up 11 shots in the second half.

"Eastern came out in one formation and at halftime switched to another," said Citowicki. "They tried to destabilize the way we played at Idaho.

"We had to come up with different solutions to it. We couldn't possess as much as we wanted to, and we had to possess in different parts of the field. We did that and created chances."

Thompson made it 2-0 in the 65th minute, not long after the Eagles took their first shot of the match.

Taylor Stoeger, who scored both of Montana's goals in Friday's win, played the ball to the end line on the right side and crossed it past Winston and another Eagle defender to a waiting Thompson, who had an open net in front of her.

It gave Thompson three goals this fall, the most for a freshman since Alexa Coyle scored four in 2017.

Xu didn't need to make her first save until the 80th minute. It was the only save she needed to complete the shutout.

Thompson took four shots, Haustein and Allie Larsen three, and Citowicki was able to go eight players into his bench.

Sunday's results leave Montana in third place in the Big Sky, two points behind Weber State and Northern Colorado, which are tied atop the standings at 6-1-0.

The Grizzlies host the surging Wildcats, who have won three straight, on Friday at 3 p.m. at South Campus Stadium in Missoula.

"I'm looking forward to putting this up against Weber, which is on fire right now," said Citowicki. "It's a big game coming up.

"The first priority is get to playoffs. The second priority is win the regular season, then win playoffs and get to the (NCAA) tournament. We're locked in (to the Big Sky tournament), so now let's go."

After hosting Weber State on Friday afternoon, Montana will wrap up its regular-season schedule at home against Idaho State at 1 p.m. on Sunday for Senior Day.