PHOENIX, Ariz. (September 11, 2021) - Northern Arizona soccer suffered their seventh loss of the season on Saturday night against the Denver Pioneers.
The Northern Arizona offense started off strong, as the Lumberjacks scored the first goal early on. Mikella Reed scored the first goal of the match for NAU, as well as her first career goal as a Lumberjack. Gabrielle Ballard sent a striking pass to Reed who put the ball passed Denver's goalkeeper, giving the Lumberjacks the lead in the 23rd minute.
The Pioneers saw their opportunity right before halftime, when Ella Frost found the back of the net and tied up the match.
Coming out of halftime, Denver waisted no time to create scoring chances and put up four goals in twenty-two minutes. Their second goal of the match came from Kaitlyn Glover on a pass from Sami Feller and Sydney Sharp. Sharp saw her own chance six minutes later as she took the pass from Feller and sent it to the back of the net, scoring the Pioneers third goal of the game.
In the sixty-third minute of the match, Natalie Beckman was rewarded a penalty kick that she capitalized on and scored the fourth goal for the Pioneers.Three minutes later, Riley Baker scored for the Pioneers off the bench, giving Denver a four goal lead. Baker scored her second goal of the match ten minutes later, assisted by Delaney McGowan.
In the eighty-fifth minute, Logan Maszton scored her first goal as a Lumberjack, coming from the assist by Mikayla Topaum.
"I think we need to change things up. We as coaches need to take a look at the drawing board, we might have to change some things tactically and we may have to play a little different. The light at the end of the tunnel is that we're still scoring goals," Head Coach Kylie Louw said.
The Lumberjacks will head back to Flagstaff on Friday night for their matchup against Arizona Christian, the game is set to start at 7 p.m. MST.
