Box Score



NAMPA, Idaho — This time, the second half belong to the Crusaders.

After seeing a pair of road games slip away in the final 45 minutes, Thursday at home the Northwest Nazarene women's soccer team turned it up a notch and took control in the second half to score a 2-1, comeback win over Montana State Billings in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play at Finkbeiner Park on the NNU campus.

"Our girls changed what we were doing in the second half and it paid off," said NNU head women's soccer coach Mary Trigg, whose team tied it on a Sarah Jenkins goal then got the game-winner with 55 seconds remaining on the clock from Makena Dandley.

"Makena scored a great goal for us, so it was nice to be the ones putting it in at the end of the game," Trigg added.

A week before, the Crusaders (5-5-1 overall, 2-3 1 GNAC) held a 2-1 lead at halftime at Central Washington and were tied with No. 24 Seattle Pacific 1-1, at the break. Both games went against NNU in the second half.
 

So down 1-0 at the break against the visiting Yellowjackets (5-3-2, 3-2-1), the Crusaders got a motivating halftime speech from their coach, refocusing their efforts.

"We went away from our game-plan in the first half, just keeping the ball better," Trigg said, adding that the difference in the final 45 minutes was, "… just calming down and keeping the ball and getting our confidence back."

That led to a completely different NNU team, which began controlling play and finally tying the score when Ashley Cook-Cox dropped a pass from the top of the 'Jackets goal-box back to Sarah Jenkins.

Jenkins let rip with a shot from 25 yards out that sailed in the right side of the net, knotting the score at 1-1 with 27 minutes, 29 seconds remaining.

Both teams traded chances from there, looking to break the tie, but in the final minute NNU made a decisive push that led to a corner kick out of the right corner.

Lexi Fesenbek lobbed a perfect ball into the middle of a fray of players that Laura Seymour headed toward the net.

MSU Billings goalkeeper Chloe Hops punched the shot away, but right to Dandley, up from her defensive position to support the attack.

Dandley made the most of her chance, heading the rebound off the right goal-post and in, lifting the Crusaders to the 2-1 win with just 55 seconds left in regulation.

"It's always so awesome just getting to go up there and getting the opportunity, so the fact that I finally finished it and it was such an important finish, it's so awesome," Dandley said of her first goal this season. "There's no better feeling in the world I don't think."

The Crusaders, who got eight saves in goal in the win from keeper Daniele Ortiz, look to build on their winning feeling when they host Simon Fraser on Saturday at 1 p.m.