BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – After a scoreless first half, the Illinois State soccer team (4-2-2) tallied two goals in the second 45 minutes to defeat Bowling Green (1-6-0) 2-1 Friday evening at Cochrane Field.  Kyla Cross opened the scoring for the Redbirds, while Rachel Tejada scored the goal that would ultimately be the difference.

“I thought we started out a little bit sluggish,” head coach Drew Roff said.  “We were losing the battle in the midfield.  We knew at halftime that we had to regroup, and we decided to go after them a little bit more.  We started our pressure a little higher and tried to spread them out a little bit.  We were much sharper at the beginning of the second half.  We had some good moments, and we definitely had to battle to the final whistle to preserve the win.”

Cross opened the game’s scoring in the 51st minute with her second goal of the season.  Rachel Bostick headed a goal kick from Bowling Green’s Jenna Underwood in behind the Falcon defense to Tejada.  Tejada drew two defenders as well as Underwood, allowing her to slide it over to a wide-open Cross.  The assist was Tejada’s second of the season. 

In the 69th minute, Tejada put the Redbirds up 2-0 with her Missouri Valley Conference-leading 10th goal of 2012.  Aimee Wronski played a ball to Tejada, who dribbled to the top-right corner of the penalty area before launching a shot by the outstretched arms of Underwood.  The assist was Wronski’s team-leading third of the season.

The Falcons broke up the shutout by scoring in the 89th minute.  After a scramble off a corner kick, Sidney Huth collected the ball in the penalty area and fired a shot by Mara Kremenovic.  However, the Redbirds were able to maintain the one-goal advantage and break their two-game losing streak.

Kremenovic picked up her second victory in as many appearances, stopping a season-high five shots in the win.  Tejada led all players with six shots, while Cross had two.  Gabbi McArtor played all 90 minutes to increase her team-leading total to 761, while freshman Lauren Koehl provided a spark off the bench with her pressure on the Falcon backs.

The Redbirds are next in action Sunday, Sept. 16 at Toledo.  Kick-off is scheduled for 12 p.m.  The Rockets have seen their 2012 season get off to a slow start, as they come in to Sunday’s match at 2-5-0 and losers of two consecutive games. The defending MAC champions have struggled to score, netting six goals through seven games after scoring 44 one year ago.

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