Senior midfielder Chelsea Peterson put the game away for the Spartans off a cross from Stander less than five minutes after the first goal.

Head coach Tom Saxton said they played a bit erratically at the end, but overall it was a good game.

“I give credit to Eastern for having a good game plan,” Saxton said. “They came out low pressure. We basically played right into their hands, and that’s why we went into the half scoreless.”

Saxton said it was nice to finally score after playing a really strong game against Oakland last Wednesday, but not scoring goals with the amount of shots they put up can be frustrating.

“We played a really good game against Oakland in an electric atmosphere in front of a great crowd, and we had a couple good opportunities to win the game,” he said. “You come to this game now and start to see some of the same pattens.”

Stander said she came out in the second half with a new mindset and that’s what allowed her to score.

“In the first half, I think I was focusing because they were packing it in on defense,” Stander said. “In the second half, I made an effort to keep it on the ground, so that’s what I did, and somehow, it made it through.”

Stander, who has 13 shots in the past two games, only has scored one goal in that time and said that scoring can be fluky.

“It’s like that, and you go through your droughts, and I knew I was getting the opportunity and I was making opportunities for myself,” she said.

Still, with the two consecutive shutouts and three overall on the season, the defense is starting to gel, even with the loss of senior defender Kelsey Kassab for the remainder of the season.

Junior defender Annie Steinlage said it’s not only the back line and keeper that are playing well defensively.

“The more we play together, the more we know how to play together,” Steinlage said.

Steinlage said they can still get better as a unit.

“We did a good job possessing today, but maybe we could have a little more urgency in our attack,” she said.

For Saxton, the team is getting closer reaching the next level in preparation for Big Ten play.

“We have to be able to defend to survive in the Big Ten, and I thought the defensive organization was very good,” he said. “We flipped a switch against Oakland, and we maintained it today where we showed passion and emotion and energy.”