GUNNISON, Colo.  Visiting Colorado School of Mines scored in the game's sixth minute Sunday afternoon to put host Western Colorado in an early deficit, a disadvantage that the Mountaineers were unable to overcome in an eventual 3-0 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference loss to the top-ranked team in the country.

JUST THE FACTS
Final score: No. 1 Colo. Mines def. Western, 3-0
Records: Western 3-5-3 overall (2-1-2 RMAC), CSM 11-0-1 (5-0-1)
Location: Katy O. Rady Field, Gunnison, Colo.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Mines initiated early pressure with a shot sent over the crossbar in the fourth minute. Then pieced together a sequence two minutes later to break the seal on the scoreboard.
• A centering pass from wide left gave Mines' Reese McDermott two cracks from in close, the first simultaneously blocked by a defender but the second came off her right foot and slid inside the left post at the 5:46 mark.
• Western had a chance for the equalizer in the 21st, but a give and go deep in the right side was whistled for an offside, negating the Mountaineers' first scoring chance of the game.
• Mines added a second goal late in the first half for a more comfortable two-goal margin entering the halftime break.
• Mountaineer goalkeeper Aubree Orosco came up with a save on a point blank shot in the 48th to kick off the second half, Orosco maintaining Western's still-reachable deficit with nearly all of the second half to play.
• Taylor Bottoms cranked a shot just left of the goal in the 67th, Western's first scoring chance of the half, but Mines took possession and added a third goal off a corner kick opportunity three minutes later.
• The corner was inserted with a short pass to Laura Butler who lined a shot toward the far post and beyond Orosco's reach. A Western defender leapt into the air and shouldered the ball away, but the ball was judged to have completely crossed the goal line before being redirected out.
• The Mountaineers worked to the horn, getting off two shots in the final minute of the game, Cianna Thomas' first getting saved and deflected wide of the post by CSM goalie Sadie Wolf, and Thomas' second off the resulting corner kick chance was wide right.

UP NEXT
Western travels to Salt Lake City to take on host Westminster University in a Friday night RMAC match, then returns home to square off against visiting Colorado Mesa University on Sunday afternoon at Rady Field.