NAMPA, Idaho – The Northwest Nazarene men's soccer team lost 3-1 to No. 17 Colorado Mesa on Saturday at NNU Field.

The Nighthawks (1-2) struggled to execute their gameplan and couldn't get anything going offensively until late in the match.

"When you play against quality opponents and top ranked teams the margin of error is so small," NNU coach Adam Pearce said. "They punish you for those mistakes and capitalize on them and that is exactly what happened."

The Mavericks (2-1) opened the scoring in the 23rd minute on a cross from Ramses Atahualpa to Lawan Abary who headed it in to make it 1-0.

Mesa doubled its lead in the 34th minute on a Noah Rosenberg header off of a corner by Atahualpa.

The Mavs went up 3-0 in the 69th on a goal by Alec Fronapfel on another assist by Atahualpa.

Danny Cuevas scored his first goal of the year on a header from Lorenzo Valentini to pull one back for the Nighthawks in the 79th minute.

"Credit to our guys for fighting back in the second half and getting the goal," Pearce said. "But it was a little too late with trying to execute the plan."

NNU heads to California next week to play Notre Dame de Namur and Dominican.

"We will focus on the things we can control," Pearce said. "We have to make sure we impose ourselves on the game and that we are all working together and toeing the same line. If we do that we can be as competitive as anybody. If we don't do that we end up getting exposed quickly and they end up getting the better of us."

Alex Nadermann made three saves in goal.