Southeast Missouri State soccer ends scoreless stalemate with late PK

Southeast Missouri State sophomore Natasha Minor scored on a penalty kick in the 86th minute of play to lift the Redhawks to a 1-0 victory in a hotly contested win over Belmont that included the late ejection of a Bruins player Sunday in Ohio Valley Conference women's soccer action in Nashville, Tennessee.

Minor scored her fourth goal of the season at the 85-minute, 47-second mark after a Belmont player was called for a trip inside the box.

Minor had taken a pass near the end line from Paige Blankenheim, then made a move toward the goal.

"[Minor] was clearly inside the box and going toward the goal," Southeast coach Heather Nelson said. "[The other side] didn't think there was a whole lot of decision that needed to be made by the official with regards to it."

Minor, who Nelson said was taken down from behind, scored on the ensuing penalty shot. Belmont's Taylor Smith received her second yellow card of the game -- resulting in a red card -- in the aftermath of the penalty. Belmont also was hit with another yellow card, part of a heated environment over the final minutes of the 90-minute contest.

"I think the red card, I think, was for language from one of the Belmont players, and the yellow cards were just pretty rough play ... a couple of their kids I don't think were even trying to play the ball at the end of the game," Nelson said. "It ended up a little rough, but fortunately we had a very good official that was managing the game and kept our kids safe."

Nelson said Blankenheim played the ball into a dangerous area, and Minor, who had four of Southeast's 10 shots in the game, created the scoring chance with her athletic ability.

"Natasha is just real quick," Nelson said. "She's able to run down a lot of things. She does a great job of getting faced up pretty quickly."

Southeast previously had the game's best scoring chance about 25 minutes into the first half when freshman Sunni Kesenich put a shot off the left post.

Nelson said the left-footed Kesenich beat a couple Belmont defenders to get in alone on goalkeeper Lindsey Espe and unloaded a right-footed shot just inside the top of the box.

"She beat the keeper and everything was great, but she left the finish on it," Nelson said. "I was very excited because she's a freshman and has been coming on strong."

The Redhawks improved to 6-5 overall and 3-2 in the OVC. Belmont fell to 4-5-4 and 1-2-2.

Espe finished with six saves.

Southeast goalkeeper Kindra Lierz made four saves for the Redhawks, who were outshot 19-10. Belmont also held a 4-3 edge in corner kicks.

"Kindra had a very solid game for us defensively today," Nelson said. "Our defense, for the most part, did a good job of making sure the shot came from a distance."

Southeast, which had lost 1-0 in overtime at home against Austin Peay two days earlier, will return to OVC action against Eastern Kentucky at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Houck Stadium.