Soccer Ties Big Sky #3 Eastern Washington

Friday, October 23

Greeley, Colo.

7:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

11-6-1 (6-1-1BSC)

Eastern Washington University

11-3-2 (5-2-1BSC)

OT 3

OT 4

Eastern Washington

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Ryan Pfeifer

10/23/2015 10:43:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

The Bears move to 6-1-1 in Big Sky play after Friday night's game against the Eagles

GREELEY, Colo. - Northern Colorado Women's Soccer picked up their first tie in a matchup against the Eastern Washington Eagles on Friday, 2-2.

The Bears have now either tied or won their last seven meetings with the Eagles, including a tie in 2011 when UNC hosted their first Big Sky Championship. Friday night's game had a season record attendance of 506 people, with another 61 following along via WatchBigSky.com.

"I thought the game was a very entertaining back-and-forth game," head coach Tim Barrera said. "But since they came back from being down by two goals, it feels more like a 2-2 loss for our team. At this time of year it's a play-off type atmosphere, especially when #2 and #3 are playing each other and fighting for that regular season title."

Northern Colorado dominated the first half of the game, both offensively and defensively. The back line of Maddie Chase, Ambree Bellin and Adrienne Jordan prevented the Eagles from taking a single shot on goal in the entire period.

Freshman Mariel Gutierrez took five shots in the first half, all within the first 27 minutes. She also picked up one of the two first-half goals for the Bears on top of assisting on the other [Gutierrez took a corner kick that was headed in by junior Paige Morris].

The two goals were the only ones scored in the half, putting the Bears up to end the first period 2-0.

The tide turned in the second period, with the Eagles taking six shots on goal while preventing the Bears from taking a single one. EWU also put two goals of their own on the board to tie up the game at 2-2, forcing the game into overtime.

Both teams took four shots in the two overtime periods, including on shot on goal by junior Kassy Castillo, but UNC had what seemed to be the closest chance of ending the game after Brooke Braden took a shot from the left wing, but the ball went just wide to hit the post, deflecting it away from the goal.

"It's one we should've put away," Paige Morris said. "When you're up 2-0, you have to be able to take care of your chances and finish the game. Hopefully our disappointment from today will carry over to practice tomorrow and the game on Sunday - we won't want to let this happen again against Idaho. A tie is absolutely as frustrating as a loss is, especially when they come back to tie it from being down by two goals."

Overall, the Eagles had 20 shots to the Bears 16, but the Bears had seven total shots on goal compared to EWU's six. EWU also picked up six corner kicks, two more than the Bears. A total of four yellow cards were handed out throughout the game, two to UNC and two to EWU (including a bench warning).

Sunday's game against Idaho will still be a major deciding factor in who will be named the regular season champions (and who will host the Big Sky Championships in two weeks). The Bears have only defeated the Vandals once in their five meetings, in 2009, 1-0, at a neutral site. The Vandals moved to 8-0-0 in 2015 Big Sky play after defeating North Dakota, 4-0, on Friday afternoon.

"We've played overtime quite a bit this season so we'll do our normal recovery tomorrow to prepare for Sunday," Barrera explained. "This team does a good job of bouncing back from disappointing games, so we'll be able to put this game behind us fairly quickly. Sunday against Idaho is an even bigger game than tonight was. The girls are disappointed with the result from today, but they'll be ready to face Idaho come Sunday."

Sunday will serve as Senior Day for the five seniors currently on the UNC squad. The seniors will be recognized before the game to highlight their last regular season game in Jackson Stadium.

10/25 vs Idaho
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For more information on the Bears this season, check out UNCBears.com, visit the official Facebook page, or follow them on Twitter at @UNCBearsSoccer.