Soccer holds off Air Force in exhibition victory
By RYAN PFEIFER
UNCBears.com
GREELEY -- Northern Colorado's Women's Soccer faced off in its second exhibition of the year Monday afternoon at Jackson Field, handing Air Force a 2-1 loss two days after falling to the Falcons by the same score.
The coaches decided to play the match as three 30-minute periods, instead of the normal two 45-minute halves, and the contest was the Bears' last warm-up before Friday's regular-season opener in the Colorado Cup against Colorado at 7:30 at Jackson Field.
"Overall it was a good team effort," Northern Colorado coach Tim Barrera said. "We used our whole roster and got some valuable time for some of our young players."
Northern Colorado got the lead early with a great unassisted goal by sophomore Juliana Grover (Littleton) just past the 16th minute of the game. Grover, a forward, bent the ball just inside the right goalpost from the far left side of the field.
The Bears then continued to attack throughout the game, outshooting the Falcons 13-8.
The continuous pressure helped lead the Bears to their second goal of the game in the 54th minute, when senior Danielle Birdsall (Broomfield) scored for the second-straight match.
Birdsall's score was set up by a couple of nice passes from the duo of senior Alexsys Tamayo and sophomore Madison Yoswa (both from Aurora).
"We were able to finish our opportunities today, which helped us out a lot," Birdsall said.
Air Force's goal came with about eight minutes to go when junior midfielder Leah Bratt put a score just past the reach of Northern Colorado goalkeeper Natalie D'Adamio.
"We did well attacking, getting the first and second goal today, and keeping the pressure on them," D'Adamio said.