LAKE CHARLES—An early flurry from McNeese was too much to overcome in a 4-1 loss at McNeese on Sunday in the final road regular season game of the season.
NSU (8-9, 5-4) couldn't withstand an early onslaught from McNeese (9-6-3, 4-2-3), as the Cowgirls scored three goals in the first half to take control.
With the loss, the Demons won't be able to defend their regular season crown.
"I thought we just didn't play well today," head coach
Ian Brophy said. "I thought we were prepared tactically but just didn't perform well. We had some individuals who played really well, but overall, it wasn't our best game as a team."
McNeese started the game on fire and didn't let up, as Ashley Guild stole the ball in front of the Demons net and passed it in the middle of the box and Isabella Baltov did the rest, going bottom right of the goal in the fifth minute to set the tone for the match.
Sumayah Brown followed by scoring two goals exactly nine minutes apart to push the Cowgirls in front 3-0.
On Brown's first goal, Emma Korhonen sent a cross in from left to right and Brown sent it home into the top right corner. She followed that up with a goal on a penalty kick nine minutes later, and the first half ended 3-0.
The Demons tried to fight back into the game early in the second half, as
Rhiley Potteiger scored her first career goal and first career points in the 52
nd minute shortly following a corner kick in her third game back after an injury sidelined her for 10 games.
NSU had chances to cut the lead even further, especially on a shot by
Kendall Hemperley in the 56
th minute that was saved by Celeste Marijnissen, one of her six stops on the day.
Riley Stern also attempted a shot less than a minute later, but the McNeese defense held strong.
McNeese fought back with a goal in the 59
th minute off an impressive pass from Morgan Fiedler to Rhiannon Maynes-Tourond, whose header hit the right post and caromed into the back of the net, past
Sabrina McCarter, who was making her second career appearance.
NSU had 19 shots with seven on frame, compared to McNeese's 16 shots with eight on goal.
Gabriela Page and
Tayla Crandell each had three shot attempts to lead the Demons, while Baltov (6) and Brown (5) recorded 11 of the Cowgirls 16 shot attempts.
Next up for NSU is the regular season finale Thursday morning when it hosts UTRGV at the Demon Soccer Complex before heading to Commerce for the Southland Conference Tournament, which starts on Nov. 10.
"We have to be resilient like we have been all year," Brophy said. "We need to bounce back and not let our foot off the gas against UTRGV and make sure we're mentally all there since for whatever reason we weren't mentally into it today. We have to keep our foot off the gas because we've got a tough playoff run in front of us."
