EDINBURG, Texas—After dominating a scoreless first half, it was just a matter of time before the Northwestern State soccer team broke through.

Break through it did, as the Demons (5-2-2, 1-0) found the back of the net twice in the second half, as they won their seventh consecutive Southland Conference opener with a 2-0 victory on the road over UTRGV (3-5-1, 0-1).

NSU received goals from Hosane Soukou and Paige Baumgartner and never looked back, controlling the game and playing mostly in the attacking third.

"I thought we played really well," head coach Ian Brophy said. "Even in the first half when we didn't score a goal, I knew if we kept playing that way and improved on a couple of things, I knew the goals were coming."

Soukou scored her fifth goal on a beautiful pass sent in by Emily Gundin from outside the top left of the box into box to Soukou in the 61^st minute. The freshman gathered it in with her foot and sent it past Heiddis Sigurdardottir, who did all she could for the Vaqueros with a career-high eight saves.

Baumgartner sealed the game with a goal in the 84^th minute on a clean look from the box, putting the finishing touches on the conference-opening victory.

While NSU waited until the second half to find the back of the net, the Demons dominated the entire match, recording 21 shot attempts compared to UTRGV's eight and earning nine corner kicks.

Soukou recorded two shot attempts in the first half on two solid chances and Madison Murphy had perhaps NSU's best chance of the first half off a corner in which her shot was blocked in the box.
While the Demons had the quality of chances, the Vaqueros had the half's best opportunity.

UTRGV's Rubi Ortiz had a 1-on-1 with NSU goalkeeper Kennedy Rist, but Ortiz put too much air on her shot, and it sailed over the crossbar and the contest remained scoreless.

"We played well in the first half," Brophy said. "I told them at halftime that there were just a couple of little things we wanted to improve upon. For us, it was just trying to improve on those little details that could lead to goals0 and I was happy to see them do that in the second half."

The second half was much like the first, except for the Demons cashed in on two chances.

It remained scoreless until Soukou changed that.

Gundin sent in a great ball to Soukou for the goal in front of the net. It is Gundin's third assist of the season and her seventh career assist. The three assists this season matches her career high, which she accomplished as a freshman.

The Demons had opportunities to double the lead in the second half and Baumgartner slammed the door on UTRGV with a goal late.

NSU's stellar defense recorded its fourth shutout in the last seven games and did so against a team that had scored 19 goals in its previous four games.

"In the second half, I thought the performance was sensational," Brophy said. "They were really good in the second half; finding the right moments and we took advantage of the moments we got and really scored some nice goals. I am really happy how we ended the game."

The Demons head back home for a monster matchup with reigning conference regular season and tournament champion Stephen F. Austin to wrap up the weekend.