NATCHITOCHES—"All anyone wants is a chance to play for a championship."

Head coach Ian Brophy and Northwestern State gave itself a chance to play for the championship with a 3-1 victory in the home finale against UTRGV on Sunday afternoon at the Demon Soccer Complex.

The victory moved the Demons (10-6-2, 6-2-1) to second place in the Southland Conference, two points behind league-leading Stephen F. Austin, which Northwestern State plays Friday in a winner-take-all final regular season finale.

"It was a really good performance to bounce back from adversity," Brophy said. "It was really good for us to go up two goals and then after we conceded one to fight back and get a third goal. That was awesome to see."

With the win, the Demons clinched a top-four seed in the SLC Tournament, which starts Nov. 5.

Northwestern State received a first half goal each from Taylor Spitzer and Emily Senatore and held on in the second half before Paige Baumgartner found the back of the net to put the game away.

Once again, the Demons struck first. It was the eighth time in the nine games during SLC play the Demons have scored first. In addition to scoring first, Northwestern State has led in all nine conference contests.

In a must-win game if they wanted to win the conference championship, it did not take long for the Demons to break through.

In the fourth minute, Spitzer found the back of the net on a corner kick to strike first. Emma Pethel booted the corner kick high enough for only Spitzer to get a head on it, and she headed into the net to the top middle of the net to record the first goal.

"I just thought 'Oh my gosh, it's coming to me again'," Spitzer said. "I wasn't letting (Madison) Murphy steal this one from me. So I just was able to get my head on it and hit in the back of the net."

Senatore added to the score in the 20^th minute using her patented powerful leg. She received a pass from Pethel and dribbled it to the top right part of the box, where she let loose and blasted a shot past a diving Kamila Aguilar to double the lead.

"I just received the ball and I saw a gap between the defenders," Senatore said. "I knew I could drive in between them and I saw the other defender about to come, so I knew I had to shoot it."

The game went that way into half.

However, late in the first half, UTRGV (7-5-5, 3-2-4) had a real opportunity to cut into the deficit, but three times the back line made saves in a scrum in the middle of the box to keep the Demons in front by a pair of goals.

While the Demons controlled much of the first half, the Vaqueros put the pressure on in the second half, which resulted in UTRGV's goal.

"We continued to play our soccer," Brophy said. "We kept continuing to play and play and then finally we found it in the center-forward. It was a great ball by Emily Gundin and it set Taylor in behind and it put us in a good position and then it was a great ball to the box and Paige getting on the end of it

"It was big for us to continue to playing our way sticking to our game plan, despite the goal. We didn't panic and stuck to it and that ended up getting us that third goal."

UTRGV was applying pressure throughout the early second half.

Linnea Eld scored off a tremendous pass from Samantha Maudsley, as Eld tucked in to the bottom left corner of the net to cut the deficit in half.

The Vaqueros had more chances to tie the game, but the back line made sure that did not happen.

"We had a lot of important blocks, tackles and crosses," Brophy said. "I thought that was key for us and allowed us to get the win. It was big from all 11 players."

After withstanding the surge from UTRGV, Spitzer and Baumgartner put the game away. Spitzer dribbled up the right flank and crossed it into Baumgartner, who did the rest, putting it away to put the game away as well.

UTRGV dominated the shots battle 23-9 and 10-4 in shots on goal, but the defense shut the door for the Demons.

Spitzer and Senatore each attempted three shots to lead the Demons.

In the biggest regular season game in years, Northwestern State heads to Stephen F. Austin on Friday with a chance to win the regular season title. Following the match, the Demons begin the SLC Tournament in Corpus Christi on Nov. 5.