Yellowjackets Drop Heartbreaker at Northwest Nazarene in Overtime, 4-3

Box Score

NAMPA, Idaho – Two first-half goals by freshman Jaucelyn Richter were not enough for the Montana State Billings women’s soccer team as Northwest Nazarene came back from two down and won 4-3 in overtime.  With the loss, the Yellowjackets fell to 4-3-1 overall and 1-1 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.  NNU improved to 3-2-3 overall and 1-0 in conference play.

“We did a great job in the first 25 minutes to put ourselves in a position to win,” head coach Don Trentham said.  “However, we did a very poor job the rest of the game in finding a way to get the result.  The GNAC is a tough conference and if you don’t play a complete game it is hard to win.  We will use this game as a learning experience and ultimately find a way to get better from it.”

In the overtime period, NNU’s McKenzie Bailey scored in 99th minute on a pass from Erika Kristensen just inside the box and fired it to the far post past MSUB goalkeeper, Jordan Fenwick, for the game winner.

The Yellowjackets opened play in dominating fashion as GNAC scoring leader, Jaucelyn Richter, scored twice in the first 25 minutes.  On the first goal, Richter took Kari Foreman pass on a breakaway and fired to the lower right corner in the 11th minute.

15-minutes later, Richter hooked up with Carly Valentine on another breakaway for a 2-0 lead.

The Crusaders answered late in the half as Autumn Yturbe scored her first of two goals in the 38th minute as she converted a deflection with an assist from Stacey Beckman.  Five minutes later, Yturbe scored off a deflection by Fenwick and an assist from Marie Smith.

The first half was pretty even as MSUB held an 8-7 lead in shots.  The Yellowjackets had five first half saves, while NNU had four.

Smith scored the go-ahead goal for NNU in the 54th minute as she beat two defenders and shot from the inside far post for a 3-2 lead.  The Yellowjackets evened the game in the 70th minute as freshman Jennifer Larsen scored off an Andrea Baytaluke assist on a shot from 20-yards out to the far post.

Richter and Larsen led the team in shots with five each.  Richter had three shots on goal with two scores giving her a team-high seven goals for the year.  Larsen tallied her fifth score of the year. 

MSUB outshot NNU 19-14, while the Crusaders had a slim 12-11 lead in shots on goal.  MSUB tallied five corner kicks to one for NNU.  Fenwick and Tanya Zickefoose each had eight saves in the game.