NAMPA, Idaho - A second-half shutout by Colorado Mesa stopped a promising first half from the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks in a 17-6 loss on Saturday evening.

The top team in the RMAC found themselves against the ropes early in the contest. Both teams traded goals in the first quarter as CMU's Caleb Schreiber opened the scoring and NNU's Drew Guerrero answered with a goal of his own at the 11:12 mark. Camden Moody put one in with 6:04 on the clock for the Mavs and Colton Altimus scored the first leg of his hat trick two minutes later. 

Back-to-back goals for the Mavs late in the quarter gave them a two-goal lead at the quarter break. The second quarter remained scoreless until the 9:23 mark where Colton Altimus netted his second of the game and started a 3-0 run for the Nighthawks. Hank Riddle and Kellen Young each scored, giving the Nighthawks their first lead of the night.

Two minutes later, Dillon Pless put in the equalizer. Less than a minute later, Colton Altimus completed the hat trick to put NNU up 6-5. 

The home Nighthawks were poised to take the 6-5 lead into the halftime break. However, Connor Jensen was racing against the clock and tied it yet again with no time remaining on the clock.

That buzzer-beater goal proved to be the motivation for the Mavs heading into the second-half as they would outscore the Nighthawks 11-0 to take home their fifth straight win and remain undefeated in conference play.

Colton Altimus led NNU in goals with three and has scored a hat trick in his last seven out of eight games. Drew Guerrero, Kellen Young, and Hank Riddle each recorded a goal while Gordie Steidel recorded 22 saves.

Northwest Nazarene falls to 2-6 overall and 1-4 in RMAC play. They will get set to host their final two games next week as they host Domincan (Calif.) on Thursday at 7 pm and Concordia Irvine (Calif.) on Saturday at 1 pm. Read Full Article