NATCHITOCHES—All Northwestern State needed was some home cooking to give the team a jump start.
NSU (1-5) scored five unanswered goals to turn around an early 2-0 deficit to roll into a 5-2 victory on Sunday afternoon against Louisiana Tech (2-4-1) at the Demon Soccer Complex.
"That home cooking was really good for us," head coach
Ian Brophy said. "Getting to be home and comfortable in our environment was definitely what we needed. That second half was definitely the team we've been striving to be. Now we just have to keep it rolling and stay consistent with the style of play and what we're trying to do. I am really excited by the performance today, for sure."
The seniors collected three of the five goals, including two by
Paige Baumgartner to wrap up a three-goal week for her after also scoring in the loss to Alcorn State.
Emily Gundin was the other senior who scored, and
Maliya Maldonado and
Tiana Cruz also found the back of the net for the first time in two seasons to seal the Demons first win of the season.
With the win, NSU improves to 19-3-4 under Brophy in home games and has improved the unbeaten home streak to 12, dating back to October 2024.
NSU had one of its better offensive production days in terms of shot attempts, recording 30 of them, the most it has attempted since the dominant victory over Prairie View A&M last season.
While the game ended beautifully for the Demons, the contest started like many others this season, as the Bulldogs found the back of the net twice in a span of 24 seconds to grab a 2-0 lead in the 18
th minute.
"We've talked about the word 'resilience' a lot, probably more than any other word," Brophy said. "Resilience is such a key aspect of how we're going to be this year and how resilient can we be and today we showed that with being down 2-0 and then scoring five consecutive goals to win the match. That was a great showing. There was some beautiful soccer in there with some great team goals."
Instead of hanging their heads, the Demons fought back, started by a strike from Baumgartner.
Riley Stern, who had two assists in the game to move into the top 10 for career assists at NSU, started the comeback with a run and pass to
Kendall Hemperley.
Hemperley found Baumgartner in the middle of the box, and she blasted a shot into the upper left corner to cut the deficit to 2-1 in the 21
st minute.
The Demons had a chance to tie with great chances from Baumgartner and
Ravina Sandhu in the 27
th minute, but Tech goalkeeper Mackenzie Lorkowski kept the visitors in front at halftime with a pair of her game-high eight saves.
After many chances at tying the game, NSU finally broke through again with one of the best goals of the season, as Baumgartner's shot from the top left of the box curved into the top right corner of the goal off the post to tie the score in the 51
st minute.
"I can't even remember who passed me the ball on that second goal," Baumgartner said. "I was just dribbling and I shot it and I thought it was going out and then it curved at the last second and hit the post and went in.
"I didn't even know what to feel in that moment, but it was unbelievable. After that, we just had the confidence, and we added three more after that."
No one was stopping the Demons after that, as Maldonado found the back of the net in the 63
rd minute off a perfect pass into the box from Hemperley, her second assist of the game.
Gundin added her first goal of the season on an assist from
Emma Pethel in the 75
th minute to double up the lead.
"After I got the second goal, we all just took a deep breath and said we're in this game," Baumgartner said. "We started playing the way we knew how to play, and the goals just started coming and it was a really good performance from everybody in the game."
Moments before, Pethel had a 1-on-1 chance against Lorkowski, but the Tech goalkeeper made the save to keep the Demons lead at one.
Not deterred, Pethel sent in a perfect pass to Gundin in the box, and the senior turned and fired it past Lorkowski with a left-footed shot into the top right corner of the goal.
Cruz added one more on a tip-in of a shot by
Alexia Adimmah, but Adimmah's assist is her first collegiate point.
Overall, eight Demons scored points.
After allowing two goals early, Marfia was flawless afterward, recording five saves overall. She had a bit of help from a defense that was there when she needed them.
Playing in her first game in the back line, freshman
Addi Lehnertz had a strong performance, helping the defense keep shots away from Marfia.
"Coach Ian told me I was going to be in the back line today and I had never played there before," freshman
Addi Lehnertz said. "There were nerves going into the game, but I have so much trust in Coach Ian and he obviously knows what he is doing.
"I want to give a big thank you to my teammates, especially Kate (Bouck) and Audrey (Marfia) because they helped me through everything. I just put my head down and played my game."
The Demons are aiming to take that momentum into a Senior Day game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Thursday before traveling to Grambling on Sept. 17 to wrap up non-conference play.
