Women’s soccer falls to Northwestern Oklahoma State

The Lady Eagles soccer team started Saturday’s game with the right intentions, but failed to execute as it fell 1-0 to Northwestern Oklahoma State University.

After a similar loss to Southwestern Oklahoma State University on Thursday, senior Maicee Brinkman said the team needed to work on intensity during the game — a goal Amanda Cooper said the team accomplished on Saturday.

“We outshot our opponent by a large margin, which is extremely positive,” Cooper said. “Now that we have started to generate shots we needed to find the back of the net. Our offense did a great job to create opportunities on net, it just wasn’t our day for any of them to go in.”

The Lady Eagles recorded 19 shots – eight more than the Rangers. Ranger goalkeeper Briana Legaspi saved the 13 shots that threatened the net.

Oklahoma Christian University continuously pressured the Rangers’ defense and had an opportunity to tie the game shortly into the second half with a penalty kick, but Legaspi managed another save against Rubi Villegas Aguilar.

Carina Schanz saved seven goals for the Lady Eagles but missed a shot over her head by Arlet Polack in the 49th minute.

Recently, the Lady Eagles’ games have followed a pattern – no one scores until the second half. In four of the team’s five games this season, all goals for either team have been made during the second half.

Cooper said this history of second-half goals was a result of opponents taking advantage of late-game openings.

“I wouldn’t say that there is any specific reason for this pattern, just that the other teams have found small windows to capitalize on their opportunities late in the game” Cooper said.

Alexis Farrell said the team is continuing to progress through its workload as the games fly by.

“The good thing about having a lot to work on is knowing there is room for improvement and opportunities to win games,” Farrell said. “Thankfully this team is a team that will fix our mistakes and you will see win games.”

Oklahoma Christian hosts Texas Wesleyan University on Friday at 7 p.m.

00