Beine, Minor lead Southeast soccer past EKU

Southeast Missouri State seniors Natasha Minor and Breana Beine have built up such good chemistry over the past two seasons that they make creating plays and scoring look easy.

With four minutes to play in a scoreless game, they put that play into action.

Minor settled a pass off of a throw-in, dribbled once, then looked up and saw a wide-open Beine at the top of the Eastern Kentucky box.

Beine used her quick speed to dribble past two defenders before ripping a shot past EKU goalie Anna Hall and into the bottom right corner of the net to give Southeast the lead.

Beine's team-leading sixth goal was the game-winner as Southeast went on to defeat EKU 1-0 on Friday at Houck Stadium.

"Tash is really good with her vision, so she saw me and I just hit it in from there," Beine said. "We like to connect with each other, and this year it's different because we know how the other one plays. We both like to create chances to score, and she makes it a lot easier on me because she can always find me and put the ball at my feet."

Southeast (7-5, 4-2) moved into third place in the Ohio Valley Conference with the win. EKU (3-12-1, 1-5-1) fell to 9th place after the road loss.

Minor, who had three shots on goal for the Redhawks, said she and Beine had set up similar plays earlier this season.

"We kind of did something similar against Murray," Minor said. "I know that Breana likes to go down the side, one of her favorite balls was the one I gave her, and with the speed that she has, it was kind of like I'm going to hit her the ball and see what happens. We don't really work on that in practice, it's more like her and I just kind of think on the same wave length and it just happens."

Southeast had plenty of chances to score on corner kicks early and outshot EKU 7-3 in the first half.

Twelve minutes into the game, Minor crossed a ball to the middle of the box. Her cross was deflected off of a headball by Torey Byrd which went wide of the net.

Three minutes later, Beine delivered a pass to Minor on the right side of the EKU box. The play was identical to Beine's goal, as Minor beat two defenders before taking a shot. However, Hall was there to make a save as she deflected the ball out of the box. An EKU defender cleared the ball out of the zone to end Southeast's last good scoring chance of the first half.

Southeast coach Heather Nelson said she liked the way her team moved the ball early on and that it was only a matter of time before the Redhawks scored.

"I thought we did move the ball very well, but I also thought they did a great job of getting a lot of numbers behind the ball which made it difficult for us to have any clear cut scoring chances," Nelson said. "At the half, I just felt like we had to keep going after them hoping that something would break, and that something would fall our way. I told our girls that at the half, and they knew that as well. I'm proud of them for keeping at it until one went in."

Southeast forward Sunni Kesenich got the chance to start for the first time this year. Nelson said Kesenich earned the starting role over Kasey Crowden, who has started every other game for the Redhawks this season, after almost scoring two game-winners in Southeast's 1-0 victory over Belmont last Sunday.

"We have a lot of depth at that spot on this team and players are pretty even, so if someone's shown something they earn that spot," Nelson said. "She almost won us the game, so we wanted to see her in that starting spot to see what she could do.

The freshman made the most of it, with two shots on goal.

Kesenich nearly scored the game winner again when Christina Rhode passed her the ball in the box with six minutes to play. Kesenich beat a defender to the ball, but her shot was off target and went wide to the right of the net.

Two minutes later, Paige Blankenheim made an EKU defender kick the ball out of bounds, setting up a throw-in which led to Beine's game winning goal.

Southeast will resume play at 1 p.m. Sunday, when it hosts fourth-place Morehead State. Nelson said the Redhawks are showing signs of a good team, but they'll have to refocus against the visiting Eagles.

"I'm seasoned in this conference, and I know that we have to look one game at a time," Nelson said. "There have been games coming off a win this season where we've been dominated and reminded that we're not unbeatable. We just think we'll have a real critical, pivotal game against Morehead, and I expect my team to come out firing."