Defense leads the way for NAU vs. @UNC_BearsSoccer

Friday, October 12

Greeley, CO

7 PM

University of Northern Colorado

8-7 (4-2)

Northern Arizona

9-3-2 (5-0-1)

Northern Arizona

Northern Colorado

UNC was unable to get its high-powered offense in gear Friday night against NAU.

10/12/2018 10:31:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: Ryan Ronan

It was a best vs. best matchup Friday night at Jackson Stadium when the No. 1 scoring defense in the Big Sky, Northern Arizona, took on the No. 1 scoring offense, Northern Colorado. Unfortunately for the Bears, it was a defensive kind of night as the Lumberjacks scored a pair of second-half goals on the way to a 2-0 win.

"We played OK, just made a couple critical mistakes in the second half," said UNC head coach Tim Barrera. "We got the ball into their end quite a bit late in the game, but we just dug ourselves too big of a hole."

It was the eighth time this season NAU kept its opponent off the scoreboard and the fifth match in a row. However, it wasn't like UNC didn't have its chances the Bears had the same number of shots as the Jacks, nine, and one more shot on goal, five.

"They put a lot of pressure on us and paid a lot of attention to Mariel (Gutierrez). They just made it hard for us. We needed to do a better job with final passes and first touches and we could have created some more chances," Barrera said.

After a scoreless opening period, NAU got on the board with a great pass from Haleigh Van Allen who led Ari Gonzalez perfectly down the right side, Gonzalez then cut toward the middle of the field before putting the ball in the back left corner of the net. Some more fancy passing helped the Lumberjacks pick up their second goal, this time in much tighter quarters as Van Allen and Kayla Terhune worked the ball back-and-forth through the box before Ana Rivera scored the final goal of the game.

The loss was a tough one for UNC since Northern Arizona came into play one point ahead of the Bears for the No. 2 seed in the Big Sky Tournament. The important thing now is for UNC to regroup and get ready for Southern Utah on Sunday so they can maintain their hold on the No. 3 seed.

"We had a lot of kids play a lot of minutes so, which ended up with some bumps and bruises so the training staff has already gotten to work on the recovery. We will deal with all that tomorrow and see what the weather looks like on Sunday," Barrera said.

SUU will be coming off a 1-1 tie against Montana when they come to Greeley to be the opponent for senior day.

Snow and cold temps are expected to accompany the final home match of the season when the Bears kick off against the Thunderbirds at 1 p.m.