Blue Raiders Dominate Evansville in Season Opener

Thursday, August 22

Evansville, IN

7:00 PM

Middle Tennessee

1-0-0

Evansville

0-1-0

Middle Tennessee

Evansville

8/22/2019 9:34:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

Peyton DePriest knocks in two goals

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – In a full team effort that saw 23 players in action in the Royal Blue and Black, the Blue Raiders opened the season on a high note as Middle Tennessee (1-0-0) posted a 5-1 victory over Evansville (0-1-0) on Thursday evening at McCutchan Stadium.

Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year Peyton DePriest shined on the offensive end for the Raiders, scoring the first two goals of the match. Juniors Carolin Engelhard and Elizabeth Watts followed up what DePriest was handing out. Lastly, C-USA Freshman of the Year Hannah Tillett joined in on the action to cap off the scoring.

"It was good to start the season with a win on the road against a good Evansville team," said MTSU head coach Aston Rhoden. "I like that multiple players scored and we were able to see several players compete. Now we need to get rested and ready for Austin Peay on Sunday."

An early MTSU attack ended up with a shot off the post by Sam DeBien as DePriest followed up the shot with a rebounded cleanup to give the Blue Raiders the first goal of the season.

Minutes later the Tillett and DePriest connection rekindles its fire from last season as Tillett sent a cross to DePriest who uses quick and clean offensive movement to put the shot past the Evansville keeper.

Off the corner from DeBien, defender Carolin Engelhard found her second goal in her career with a powerful right footer. The Blue Raiders built a quick 3-0 lead in the first 18 minutes of the first half as they dominated the possession and used constant offensive pressure on Evansville.

In the 32nd minute, Evansville put their first point on the board getting past the keeper on the far side of the field. But the Blue Raiders quickly responded with a quality finish from Watts on the right side of the net. Assist came from Tillett.

The Middle Tennessee defense did not allow a shot or a corner kick for the first 32 minutes of the match and out shot Evansville 20-4 and of those shots 16 were on goal for the Raider offense.

Middle Tennessee will head back to Murfreesboro for the first home match of the 2019 season on Sunday at 5 p.m. CT. The game will be streamed on C-USA Digital, and a link for live stats will be available on the soccer schedule page on GoBlueRaiders.com.

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