NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State defeated Navarro College 4-0 Sunday afternoon in a preseason soccer scrimmage at the Demon Soccer Complex.

In playing three, 30-minute halves, the Lady Demons showed off their advantage with depth in the third period after breaking open a 1-0 game with three goals.

Freshman Alex Petermann scored two of those three, one being unassisted and the other on a pass from Ashlee Savona.

“We were able to get some people off of playing 80 minutes,  they were able to play 45 minutes and we just wore the other team down with that,” head coach Jimmy Mitchell said. “We're going to have to play that way all year.”

Petermann scored both of her goals within four minutes of each other in the third period to put away the Bulldogs.

“She's going to be a great player for us,” Mitchell said. “She did a good job of creating opportunities, we got her a good ball and she did a good job of finishing and stayed composed.”

Junior midfielder Theresa Halle started the Lady Demon offense off with an unassisted goal in the first period.  Her goal came at the 6:01 mark.

Sophomore Yanci Johnson added to the scoring after she netted the last goal of the game late in the third period off a pass from senior midfielder Rachel O'Steen.

The Northwestern State defense held strong the whole game allowing only three shots from Navarro, and only two of those were on goal.  Both junior Sam Furlow and sophomore Jessica Danku collected a save.

“This is what scrimmages are for, we played everybody,” Mitchell said. “ We played different people in the second giving them a full 30, and then mixed it up in the third.”

Northwestern State will open its 2011 season on Friday at Louisiana-Lafayette.