Taking on a highly ranked national opponent the Northwest College women’s soccer team showed its grit on the road, falling to NJCAA No. 7-ranked Salt Lake Community College 4-0 on Thursday.

SLCC 4, NORTHWEST 0

Making the trip  to Utah the Trappers (0-2) had more rotation in the squad against the Bruins (3-0).

Shots peppered the Trapper goal early and often, and the Trappers held out the hosts until midway through the first half when the Bruins got on the board at the 22:26 mark.

“They’re a very good team, very athletic, and have a lot of good players. I thought that what we showed is that we have got grit, and we defended a lot. We knew we’d have to defend a lot,” coach Rob Hill said. “I felt that (goal) was one silly breakdown. They (Salt Lake) dominated possession.”

Northwest continued holding off the hosts the remainder of the half as the Trappers trailed 1-0 at the break.

More of the same happened early in the second half, and the Trapper defense finally broke down 13 minutes into the second half, with another goal following just a minute later to quickly make it a 3-0 game.

The Bruins got their final goal 26 minutes into the second half, ending with the 4-0 win to send the Trappers to an 0-2 start to the regular season.

“I felt like we showed a lot of determination, a lot of aggression and I felt like when we got into the middle third to final third, it happened so few times that we kind of ran out of ideas,” Hill said. “We were like, ‘oh, we’re in their middle third’ and then we kind of turned the ball over with poor decision making. Overall, coming out of that game, I felt like we learned a lot in terms of what kind of tempo you need, what kind of pace to play at.”

Coy Erickson was credited with 13 saves as the Bruins recorded 33 total shots, 17 of those on target, while Ellie Young had the lone shot of the game for the Trappers.

“Coy to me has finally become a goalkeeper. I thought she was excellent. She made some unbelievable saves and I feel like she’s probably in the hunt to be one of the top goalkeepers in the region,” Hill said.

Despite the loss in Salt Lake, he felt the Trappers can take plenty of lessons with them moving forward from that contest that they were unable to learn last year early in the year.

“The scoreline didn’t bother me. But the fact we didn’t quit was probably the most important thing for us,” Hill said.

NEUTRAL SITE GAME

The Trappers head back on the road for a single game this weekend, making the trip to Casper to take part in a neutral site game.

That will be a contest against Iowa Lakes Community College (0-3-1) at 10 a.m. on Sunday.

“We’ve never played them before. It’s another good test for us leading up to conference play,” Hill said. “If we can show that kind of grit and get a couple more players healthy and back playing, it should be a good game and a good test for us. I’m glad we’ve got it on the road again, leading up to the Trinidad and Otero weekend. They (Iowa Lakes) did lose recently, so we’ll watch some film there and see what we can exploit.”

Northwest will finally play at home next weekend, hosting Trinidad State College and Otero College to begin Region IX play on Friday and Saturday.