Rams Squander Chances Versus Lobos

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vs Colorado College

By Mike Brohard

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The call from the sidelines was familiar.

The Colorado State coaching staff was calling for urgency as the time whittled off the clock at Rams Soccer Field on Sunday afternoon. But it's been called for before this season, even this past Friday when the women's soccer team found themselves down a goal late to a Mountain West opponent.

The predicament was similar, too. The squad gave up a soft goal near the end of the first half, and paired with an offense which is struggling to find the net, urgency is needed while trying to brush aside the anxiety of it all.

Colorado State did have a chance in the final minute as a scrum off a corner kick led to a decent look, one off the foot of Sam Studt which slid just right of the post, but they also had chances earlier in the game, to where they would be the team playing with the lead, not the other way around.

The final result was a 1-0 loss to New Mexico, the same score the Rams fell to at home on Friday, leaving their record at 1-4-2 overall, 0-2-0 in conference play.

The Rams are back to a point where they can't buy a goal, a problem they'd hoped they solved with a six-goal outburst against Idaho State before conference play began.

"Not right now. I told them, they've got to create their own luck, and how you do that is you've got to take care of the ball better, you have to give your teammates good passes, and then you've just got to grind your heels that much harder and longer," CSU coach Keeley Hagen said. "It's not easy to win, it's not easy to score. That was a scrappy team that fought; they made us tougher and that's what we're looking for."

But at the end, scoring goals and not giving up soft goals would feel better at the end of the day.

In the first 30 minutes of play, Colorado State hit the inside of the post and New Mexico (7-2-0, 2-0-0) hit the crossbar, leaving the game scoreless. Yet with less than 5 minutes to go before half, the Lobos capitalized when a ball came loose off a corner kick and Paige Satterlee found the net.

In the remaining time, Grace Armstrong had two strong looks at a goal – one when New Mexico's netminder mishandled the ball -- but couldn't connect either time.

At this point, the senior who owns seven career goals would be willing to give a sacrifice to the soccer Gods for a way to find the net.

"Gosh, that would be nice. We need that right now," she said. "We just need one goal to start it off. Hopefully it will bring a lot more like it did for us with Idaho State.

"Honestly, I think it's just the focus of the execution, and I'll put that on myself today. I had two chances that I easily should have put away, and I didn't, and that's on me. I need to focus more on executing a goal and helping my team out, as they did their job the entire game to defend and keep the ball out of the net."

There wasn't much about the first half Hagen liked. She didn't feel her team took care of the ball, especially in the back end, even though their transition game is starting to take shape.

As for the soft goals they've given up, defender Kendra Gipson said there is a simple cure.

"The goals this weekend were a lack of focus on our marks," she said. "We definitely need to mark up better. That something we need to work on, but I believe that our defense and the run of play and working together has improved so much throughout the season. We just really need to hone in on get our marks and staying with them so we can avoid soft goals like that."

The two issues only compound the need for urgency at the end of a game. Playing from behind is not impossible, but it's definitely not the preferred route for any team. It's definitely not for one struggling to get a goal, let alone the one that puts them in the lead.

Hagen says the numbers don't lie: Team who score first have a 70 percent better chance of winning. It's the way the game has played out for years. They also don't have to do anything new.

Gipson said the staff constantly reminds them to stay with the process, one which has seen the team clean up some issues from the start of the campaign. It can help lead them to the positive end of what ailed them this weekend, too.

But as Hagen and her staff call for urgency at the end to tie up a game, they need a bit of that took when it comes to that process.

"It's being relentless. And it's having the urgency to be relentless on both sides," she said. "We train it, we're working on it every day. Again, you can't give up mistakes the end of the half with 5 minutes left. Now they're coming into the half with momentum. We're just giving them those gifts. They know that's not our mentality and our style. We've just got to continue to build on the things that we did well in the process and clean up the things like giving up a goal in the last 5 minutes. That's not OK."

For More on Colorado State Women's Soccer follow: Twitter – CSUFutbol | Instagram – csufutbol | Facebook – Colorado State Soccer

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Gracie Armstrong

Liv Layton

Caroline Lucas

Samantha Studt

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Kendra Gipson

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