EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Southern Illinois University Edwardsville women's soccer improved to 2-0 in the early season after a 2-0 victory over Eastern Kentucky at Korte Stadium Sunday.

The Cougars put their numbers up on the scoreboard early with both goals coming in the first 18 minutes of the game.

"When you get goals early, that's always a helpful thing in a 90-minute game," said SIUE Head Coach Derek Burton.

Devon Thomas scored her first goal of the season at 6:01 on a header off a corner kick. Freshman Sarah Doggendorf served a perfect corner kick to the middle of the box to an open Thomas from 10 yards out. Thomas headed the ball into the right side of the goal past EKU goalkeeper Stephanie Lynch.

"Devon is an extremely aggressive player, a great athlete with leaping ability and has a knack for timing on the ball on both the offensive and defensive end," Burton said.

Chelsey Johnston made it 2-0 at 17:27 when she got open in the right side of the box. Johnston scored from 10 yards out on a quick pass from Brittany Bodziak.

SIUE goalkeeper Claire Lovercheck posted her second straight shutout of the season. She finished with six saves overall. Two of those came off a pair of shots within the first three minutes of the game from EKU's Brittany Nomady. Both shots were within 15 yards of the goal in the box.

"Claire came up big a couple times early and that made a big difference today," said Burton.

The Cougars and the Colonels, now 1-3 overall, were even on shots in the first half with SIUE taking just a 7-6 edge. The second half, however, was mostly SIUE as the Cougars outshot EKU 10-2.

Just as it did in the season opener against South Dakota, SIUE's depth came into play. Thirteen different SIUE players recorded shots. Bodziak, Hope Jones, Meagan Iffrig, and Rachel Brcic recorded two shots each for the Cougars.

"We saw improvements in some of the areas we thought we needed improvement after the first game," said Burton. "We're happy. Any time you can start the season 2-0 it's obviously a positive thing."

SIUE's three-game homestand to open the season continues next Friday when the Cougars face off against Ball State. Game time is 7 p.m. at Korte Stadium. The game will be shown live at www.siue.edu/tv/ as well as on WSIE FM 88.7.

The Cougars then head to Ft. Wayne, Ind., for their first road contest. SIUE meets IPFW next Sunday at 1 p.m.

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