The Northwest College women’s soccer team's four game unbeaten start to the Region IX season was snapped at home on Saturday, as the Trappers fell to visiting Central Wyoming College 1-0.

CENTRAL WYOMING 1, NORTHWEST 0

Back at home the Trappers (2-3-3 overall, 2-2-1 Region IX) took on the Rustlers (3-3-3 overall, 2-2-1 Region IX) and hoped to extend their unbeaten run to five games.

Chances for the Trappers came early in the contest, but nothing came close to reaching the back of the net as the teams remained deadlocked at 0-0 for most of the first half.

Pressure from the visitors came down the wings, and that pressure paid off near the end of the first half.

Central found the ball on the right wing and played it across the box before it was hit across the frame at the back post and found the net to make it 1-0 just before the halftime whistle.

“They have a very competitive team. They had three players: 21, 7 and 8. They were their weapons and we didn’t deal with them,” coach Rob Hill said. “We didn’t win balls out of the air, so they were constantly on the front foot. I would say they won 99% of the aerial duels. The football wasn’t great from them, it was just that they tried to get it wide, they tried to put it in the box. That was it. The one time they did it effectively they got a goal off it.”

In the second half the Trappers were unable to find an equalizing goal, and the visitors walked away with a 1-0 victory.

“We didn’t threaten enough because we didn’t get on the ball enough, and it was simply not because of talent,” Hill said. “It was simply because we didn’t compete. We were kind of lazy, we didn’t run for each other, we didn’t work off the ball for each other. We probably chose the weekend where we had seven or eight players that just decided that they were not going to play a great game that weekend, so when you have that, we struggled.”

Hill felt like the effort the Trappers had shown recently until the Saturday game could have prevented the Rustlers' victory.

“It’s a shame because we battled against Gillette, who arguably is the best team so far, and we were two games in at that point and we battled way harder against them than Central,” Hill said. “We just did not win our duels and so we were constantly on the back foot … They (Central) had girls that would battle. It was very predictable soccer from them, but it was effective because they were running and they were competing, working and they were winning their tackles and we weren’t.”

HOME GAMES CONTINUE

The Trappers remain at home this weekend, and welcome in two more Region IX opponents on Friday and Saturday.

“This week we’re working very hard. Last week, I tried to rest them because they were complaining of being sore from the week before, which didn’t work, it had the opposite effects, now we’re working way harder, running them, being more aggressive … in the hope that we can get that mentality back, so that we have the same mentality we played with against Casper and Gillette.”

Northwest starts off with Western Nebraska Community College (4-2-3 overall, 3-2-0 Region IX) at 2 p.m. on Friday, a team that defeated the Trappers 2-0 in the season opener in Scottsbluff in August.

The Trappers then continue with Laramie County Community College (4-2-3 overall, 4-1-0 Region IX) at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

“If we have a repeat of what we did on Saturday, then unfortunately it will be back-to-back-to-back losses. The girls understand that,” Hill said. “I think it was an unfortunate weekend, but all you can do is come back and try again because they’ve shown they can do it.”

The Northwest women have one final Region IX game at home on Oct. 17 against Western Wyoming Community College which the men will not have.