THIBODAUX — While a share of a Southland Conference title is impressive, winning it outright is even more impressive.
The Northwestern soccer team (12-4-3, 7-2-1) put an exclamation point on a conference championship with a 5-0 road win at Nicholls (4-9-5, 1-5-4) on Thursday night to claim outright possession of the SLC regular season crown.
“We played really well tonight,” head coach Ian Brophy said. “We were able to get three goals right away with Riley, Paige and Emily and really put us in good position to win. We were able to rebound and play our brand of futbol.”
The Demons scored three times in the first 23 minutes, as NSU left no doubt in rebounding following a 2-0 setback a week ago at Lamar. Paige Baumgarner, Emily Senatore and Riley Stern put distance between Northwestern and Nicholls midway through the opening half.
The victory clinched the top overall seed in next week’s SLC Tournament at Beaumont.
Baumgartner scored in the 11th minute, her eighth goal of the season, to set the tone. Despite only playing 24 minutes, she scored three points with a goal and an assist.
“Paige played really well,” Brophy said. “She was active right away and with the three points and she was a big reason why we had the 3-0 lead at halftime. It was good we were able to get the big lead and give her some rest before the tournament.”
Her 18 points are tied for third in the conference in overall games, tied with teammate Riley Stern, who had a spectacular day of her own. The redshirt junior from Fort Worth collected her first multi-goal game with a pair of goals to push her point total to 18.
While Baumgartner scored the first goal in the 11th minute, and Stern scored the third and fifth goals, the SLC’s leading scorer found the back of the net for the second tally.
Senatore, who tied for the team lead with Dawson Marrs with five shot attempts, scored her 12th goal of the season, tied for the most in the conference.
Her 12 goals ties Kayce Schultz for the seventh-most in a single season in NSU history, while her 23 career goals ties N-Club Hall of Famer Hillarie Marshall Coleman for eighth all-time.
The Demons used an 11-1 shots edge in the first half to put away the game in the first half, leading 3-0 at recess.
Overall, Northwestern outshot Nicholls 23-8.
NSU used a pair of goals in the second half to put the stamp on the dominating performance. The first one came on an own goal in the 74th minute before Stern collected her second of the game in the 86th minute.
The only item left to accomplish was to keep a zero on the scoreboard for Nicholls. Kennedy Rist made sure of that. Overall, she recorded three saves, but none more impressive than her penalty kick save.
Shortly after Stern’s second goal, Nicholls received a penalty kick after a foul in the box.
Mia Gallina’s shot was saved on a leaping stop by Rist to preserve the shutout and enhance her candidacy for SLC Goalkeeper of the Year.
“We talked at halftime that one of the things we wanted to accomplish was keeping a clean sheet,” Brophy said. “That penalty kick save was huge to keep that clean sheet. It was one of the best saves I have ever seen in my life.”
The Southland Conference Tournament opens Tuesday at Lamar with top-seeded NSU is taking on in-state rival McNeese.
