NWC WOMEN FALL TO WESTERN

BY SETH ROMSA TRIBUNE SPORTS WRITER
Courtesy of the Powell Tribune

Continuing with Region IX action at home the Northwest College women's soccer team welcomed the Western Wyoming Mustangs from Rock Springs. The visitors took down the hosts 2-1 on Saturday via a goal in each half.     

WESTERN WYOMING 2, NORTHWEST 1
Continuing with Region IX action back at home the Trappers (3-2-1 overall, 1-1 Region IX) matched up with the Mustangs (5-4-1 overall, 4-0 Region IX) with both teams looking to remain undefeated in conference play.

Both teams had opportunities to score early, but it was the Mustangs who struck first after a Trapper turnover in midfield.

That led to the ball being swung out wide to the right wing, and crossed back post where it was headed into the back of the net to make it 1-0 in the 12th minute.

"I think the first half we turned the ball over too much," coach Rob Hill said. "From the back third to the middle third, I thought there were too many turnovers. The first goal was led to by a turnover from us, just poor passing."

Northwest continued to press and got the ball forward, but couldn't find a finishing touch in the first half as Hill said the Trappers didn't have the proper players in the box to find an equalizer.

"I thought that we continued to create chances, but unfortunately, when we got forward, we didn't have numbers in the box," Hill said. "Elliasen (Lewis) would break down that side, she would get past that player 10, 11 times, and then there was just nobody in the box. Or we had one vs. two, one vs. four, or two vs. six, and then there was nobody coming in for the staggered run for the cutback ball."

In the second half the Trappers continued to press the initiative, finding more opportunities and an equalizing goal early on.

A Tessa Hyland corner kick found Sienna Fuller on the back post, and she pushed it just past the defense to tie the contest 1-1 in the 54th minute.

"I thought we were on the front foot again. I thought we created chances, and we were just working on corners that morning, so to see that corner was great, but we had other chances," Hill said. 

Northwest found more opportunities but not a chance to take the lead.

Another Trapper mistake in the 67th minute gave Western its second opportunity, and the Mustangs slotted it home to take the 2-1 lead.

"We made a bad mistake for their goal where we should have just put it out for a throw-in. We didn't do that, and we got punished," Hill said. "They had two real chances and they put them away — we had four, five or six, and we didn't bury our chances."

Western held off the final chances from Northwest, and continued its undefeated start to the season in Region IX.

Northwest finished with a slight 12-10 advantage in shots on goal.

"In terms of a building block for us to kind of be a catalyst, I thought we competed harder than we've done," Hill said. "I thought we were first to a lot of balls that haven't been [to]."   

HOME CONTESTS
The home Region IX contests will continue for the Trappers this weekend against a pair of opponents from southern Colorado on Friday and Saturday.

Northwest will start with a match against the Trinidad State College Trojans (0-6 overall, 0-4 Region IX) at 1 p.m. on Friday before taking on the Otero College Rattlers (2-2 overall, 2-2 Region IX) at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

"I think if we are complacent we'll struggle in that game [Trinidad] just for tempo and being lively," Hill said. "Otero is always tough, we've always had a tough time against them … I think the region is very open this year. I've seen a lot of results that you can kind of look at and go, 'they've played this team that we beat, and we also beat that team.' I think we need to not do that and focus on that fact that we need to just come here and win our home games and compete as hard as we did against Western Wyoming."