After going winless the previous two seasons, the Northwest College women’s soccer team is off to its best start in years, compiling a 2-3 record.

The second of those two wins was a 3-1 thumping of Central Wyoming in Friday’s opening round of the K2 Technologies Invite in Gillette. The Lady Trappers came back down to earth a bit the following day, losing 7-2 to a strong Gillette side.

“We’re coming along. The team is starting to understand about what it takes in terms of mental preparation, what they can expect from the college game,” said NWC head coach Aaron Miller. “Now we’re just battling a few nagging injuries that left us short-handed on the bench against Gillette. But the girls are right there.”

Lady Trappers 3, Central Wyoming 1

Against Central Wyoming on Friday, the Lady Trappers wasted no time in drawing first blood, scoring in the first 13 seconds of the game. Freshman Sapirah Broussard found the back of the net off an assist by Ana Beatriz Santos to give NWC an early 1-0 lead.

“We started off with really good energy,” said NWC head coach Aaron Miller, adding, “The girls took the ball right down the field. We scored three goals in the first half — and it could have been twice as many in the second half.”

Central answered with a goal of their own at the 10-minute mark, as Alisha Sing snuck a shot past Lady Trapper keeper Alexa Williams to even the game at 1-1. NWC took the lead for good at the 30-minute mark of the first half, off the foot of Ali Krediet with Santos’ second assist of the game.

Gabrielle Carvalho rounded out the scoring for NWC five minutes later, converting a penalty kick to make it 3-1. Neither team scored in the second half.

Williams had a stellar outing in net for the Lady Trappers, finishing with seven saves.

“Overall, through and through, Alexa Williams has been great as a goalkeeper,” Miller said. “She’s always doing more than what she needs to be doing. Her personality is great — we recently named her a team captain because she’s doing such a great job on the field. She’ll be someone we can build a team around over the next year going into 2020.”

Gillette 7, Lady Trappers 2

Although the score didn’t go the Lady Trappers’ way on Sunday, “I praised the girls, they did a great job playing against a pretty good Gillette team.” Miller said. “They actually played better against Gillette than they did against Central Wyoming. I was happy with that, because they were really grinding away.”

The game was scoreless until the 33rd minute, when Gillette’s Liliana Hernandez scored off an assist by Sarah Williams. The Lady Pronghorns led just 1-0 at the half.

Gillette pushed its lead to 2-0 in the opening minute of the second half. NWC got on the board just a few minutes later on a goal from Broussard, her second of the weekend. Carvalho was credited with an assist.

However, Gillette scored three goals in a 12-minute span to make the score 5-1. The Lady Trappers cut into the lead at the 73-minute mark with a goal from Krediet, assisted by Broussard, but the Lady Pronghorns scored twice more to send NWC home with the 7-2 loss.

“We were still in the match at 3-1 before we kind of ran out of gas,” Miller said. “We were down to playing with 10 players at that point because of a couple of injuries that we’re working on. But overall, I was happy with how they played against Gillette.”

Miller praised the play of Broussard and Krediet, a pair he said “have become really good weapons on the attack.”

“Sapirah [Broussard] and Ali [Krediet] have started to play up front a little more together and are creating some opportunities, scoring some nice goals,” he added. “Sapirah had a bomb from about 30 yards out and just launched it over the goalkeeper’s head to the back post. It was a great shot. And Ali has been finding a little more freedom, a little more rhythm in the front. She’s not afraid to shoot either.”

The Lady Trappers are on the road again this weekend, with a pair of games scheduled in Nebraska —  Central Community College-Columbus Friday and Northeast Community College in Norfolk Saturday. Central CC is the first region game of the season for NWC.

“If we get up to full strength and everyone comes out of their freshman groove, we’re going to be where we need to be,” Miller said. “We’ve got to win a couple of more important games that should put us in a position to make it to the playoffs.”