LAFAYETTE—Northwestern State’s soccer team scored its first goal of the season off the foot of Iesha Rollins in a 4-1 road loss to UL Lafayette on Sunday night at the Home Bank Soccer & Track Complex.
NSU fell as the Ragin Cajuns scored the first three of the match, leading 1-0 at the break and then getting two goals near the middle of the second period.
The Demons found the back of the net on a penalty kick after a long free kick from NSU bounced and hit a ULL defender’s hand. Rollins’ shot went bottom left for her first goal as a Demon.
But the Ragin’ Cajuns had taken control by then, up 3-0 on two penalty kick goals of their own just a minute apart at the 62nd and 63rd minute marks.
“I thought we were a bit unlucky for the score to turn out the way it did,” head coach Ian Brophy said. “I thought we dominated in the first half and had control but had a self-inflicted wound for the first goal with a giveaway right in front of our goal. After that, it was just us trying to plug away. I felt like we were due for a goal in the first half, but never got one.
“We need to find a way to eliminate self-inflicted wounds with the penalty kicks because then you find yourself 3-0 down. There are some positives to take away in the way we played, but we just have to eliminate the self-inflicted wounds.”
Next up is a break for NSU before heading back on the road for a game with Alcorn State on Sept. 3 to conclude the stretch of five consecutive road matches to begin the season. The Demons play at home Sept. 6 for the first time in the regular season against Louisiana Tech.
“It’s been tough to practice with how much we’ve been traveling,” Brophy said. “This will be great to have a little bit of time to practice and work on some things and hopefully fix some things we need correcting. We’ll really benefit from this week of training and being able to heal up a little bit because with such tough games, it will be good to get healthier before Alcorn.