DURANGO, Colo. Western Colorado pressured heavily in its attacking third over a 20-minute span early in the second half of a scoreless game at Fort Lewis College on Wednesday afternoon, but it was the host Skyhawks who finally lit up the scoreboard with goals two minutes apart in their 2-0 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference win over the visiting Mountaineers.
JUST THE FACTS
Final score: Fort Lewis def. Western, 2-0
Records: Western 6-9-1 overall (4-7-1 RMAC), Fort Lewis 10-4-3 (7-4-1)
Location: Dirks Field, Durango, Colo.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Even without a goal up on the scoreboard during first-half action, Western seemed to be playing catch-up to the Fort Lewis attack, as the Skyhawks would enter the halftime break with a 12-5 edge in total shots and a 5-1 edge in corner kick opportunities.
- Fort Lewis came out of the break and leveled a few more shots at Western's frame, but around the 57th minute the pitch tilted downhill for the Mountaineer attack.
- Western registered three consecutive shots over the next minutes, including a long ball off Lauren Kindt's foot that glanced off the crossbar, and shortly after Natsuki Murakami put one on frame that FLC netminder Trinity Lujan needed to keep from the netting.
- In that 20-minute span on the attack the Mountaineers reeled off seven shots, two more than in the entirety of the first half.
- The tide turned, though, in the 77th minute with a corner kick for the Skyhawks.
- Maleia Dayao dropped her kick right along the goal box line where Western goalie Addison Blick rose above everyone to take hold of the descending ball. Coming down though a bump from a Skyhawk player loosened her grip and FLC's Addison Carpentier knocked it from midair into the back of the net.
- Two minutes later on a goal kick after the ball had dribbled past the end line, Blick made a short pass to a teammate still in the box. But the Skyhawks' Jenna Salazar raced in with a challenge, knocked the ball free and skimmed a shot off the inside of the left post just past the gloves of a charging Blick.
- The Mountaineers would get only one more shot off in the final 11 minutes of action.
TURF NOTES
- Blick and Presley Glass, who came in as a substitute after FLC's second goal, combined to make seven saves in the game.
- Though kept off the scoresheet, Western's Jordan Welsh finishes her time in a Mountaineers kit with the program record for career goals, 13, and single-season goals with 8 this fall.
- Wednesday's result needed to be a win or a draw for Western to advance into the RMAC postseason tournament as either the No. 7 or No. 8 seed. Yet even with either of those results the Mountaineers' fate was still out of their hands, needing losses or draws from two other teams to hold onto their playoff spot as the loss puts Western in ninth place in the league standings for the eight-team RMAC tournament.
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