Shurina’s Golden Goal Lifts ECU Past Dayton in Opener

Friday, August 18

Greenville, N.C.

7:00 p.m.

East Carolina University

1-0

Dayton

0-1

OT 2

Dayton

ECU

Photo by: Rob Goldberg

August 18, 2017 | Soccer

Box Score Box Score

Photo Gallery l Box Score (PDF)

GREENVILLE, N.C. – ECU's Marianna Shurina's overtime goal in the 94th minute of Friday night's season opener lifted the Pirates to their first win of the season, 3-2, over Dayton. Courtney Cash and Ashley Kendrot also scored in the win while redshirt senior Jenna Geist dished out a pair of assists.

Kendrot scored in the 36th minute of the first half giving the Pirates a 1-0 lead they would old through the break. In the second half it was back-and-forth scoring. Three goals in a matter of four minutes, two by Dayton, lead to a 2-2 draw in regulation. Four minutes into the overtime period, Shurina's heroics on a pass from Tori Riggs gave ECU its first win of the season.

Team Records
ECU (1-0), Dayton (0-1)

Donnenwirth's Thoughts
"We had a good opponent who is picked to finish first in the Atlantic-10. They had some dangerous players that we really had to watch but up front we did a very good job. In the first half I thought we were very good, we had a lot of chances tonight. We had 11 shots on goal and I think their keeper made some good saves. We wanted to get that second one really bad, you know, and we felt that would have changed the game. As soon as we gave up a goal the momentum changed a bit, I thought they had a little bit of a play at times in the second half. But as I told the team, that happens in a lot of games. Momentum changes but we battled through it and got the big goal at the end."

Scoring Summary
36:38 – ECU GOAL: Ashley Kendrot (Courtney Cash, Jenna Geist) [ECU 1, Dayton 0]
50:47 – DAYTON GOAL: Caroline Mink (Alexis Kiehl, Micayla Livingston) [ECU 1, Dayton 1]
51:34 – ECU GOAL: Courtney Cash (Jenna Geist) [ECU 2, Dayton 1]
54:57 – DAYTON GOAL: Micayla Livingston (Nadia Pestell) [ECU 2, Dayton 2]
94:04 – ECU GOAL: Marianna Shurina (Tori Riggs, Courtney Cash) [ECU 3, Dayton 2]

News and Notes

ECU's win marks the third season-opening victory in the last five years for the Pirates and first since 2015.
Shurina's goal marked the third goal of her career and first game-winning goal.
ECU now leads the all-time series 1-0 over Dayton and the Flyers fall to 16-42-10 all-time versus American Athletic Conference opponents
Kendrot's goal at put ECU up 1-0 in the first half was the first of her career

Up Next
ECU has a week's rest before it hits the road for the first time this season to face Davidson at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 25. The Pirates return home Aug. 27 to host Towson at 1 p.m.