Box Score NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State was bitten by the misfortune bug in the second half of Friday night's Southland Conference opener against Southeastern Louisiana.  After taking a 1-0 lead into the second half, SLU netted three goals en route to a 3-1 victory, but what was on the scoreboard wasn't what it could've been.

The Lady Demons (6-5, 0-1) had several scoring opportunities fall wayside.  First there was a look right in the front of the net when a couple of close range shots were deflected.  Then a wide open shot by Meghan Hunter from the right side bounced off of the right post.  Following that was a breakaway opportunity by Kayla King that left her foot just a tad too soon and sailed to the right of the net.

“It was a tale of two halves,” said head coach Jimmy Mitchell “We scored our goal on a great ball from Yanci (Johnson) and we kind of got them back on their heels.  I believe had we scored that goal early in the second half with those missed opportunities right in front of the the net and gone up 2-0, that could've been the nail in the coffin.”

But instead, two late goals from SLU's Kerry McWhirter in the 80th minute and Maiya Cooper in the 81st led to the 3-1 Lady Lion victory.

Johnson put NSU up 1-0 in the first half when she scored the lone goal for the Lady Demons in the eighth minute off a pass from Hailey Altenburg that led Johnson into traffic in the middle of the box for her fourth goal of the season.

NSU continued to play aggressively on the offensive front the rest of the half and held SLU at bay on a couple of scoring opportunities.  The second half started out much the same way with the Lady Demons on the aggressive end, but a span of 13 minutes, beginning with a penalty kick goal from SLU's Kelsey Salcido that tied the game at 1-1 in the 68th minute, the Lady Demons played out of sync.

“The second half a completely different game for us, especially after that penalty kick,” said Mitchell.  “After that goal, they continued to feed on the momentum.  Like every good team, they had opportunities and they finished them.  We had several opportunities we just could not capitalize on and that really hurt us.”

Near the 85th minute mark, the Lady Demons had back-to-back chances to score but Hunter's shot banged of the right post and King's breakaway shot was just wide left.

“We'll be able to bounce back from this and learn from the mistakes and be ready for Sunday,” said Mitchell.

The Lady Demons return to action on Sunday when they host Nicholls Stat at 2 p.m.