GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The University of Providence women's soccer team dropped a heartbreaker on Saturday, allowing the game's only goal in the final five minutes as the team fell to Southern Oregon 1-0.
In a closely contested game that looked to be heading into overtime, Mia Santander found the back of the net in the 87th minute off a cross from Sophia Connell to seal the game for the Raiders (5-3-1, 3-1).
"I'm extremely proud of the effort the girls put in," head coach
Heather Blandford said. "They put their heart and soul out there. They worked for each other, they battled, they fought. They did everything that I asked them to do this game. It was an unfortunate, heartbreaking goal at the end for sure, but they did everything I asked them to do."
The Raiders outshot the Argos (1-7, 1-4) 20-4 on the day. Two of the Argos' four shots were on target, with
Tihanee Freitas and
Violet Johnson putting one on.
Justine Humphry started in the net for the Argos, recording five saves on the day.
The game concludes a tough weekend for the Argos, who got up a goal against Oregon Tech yesterday before
falling 3-1. Despite the results, Blandford believes the team is vastly improving and believes the team will respond to the early season adversity.
"Coming from playing Oregon Tech yesterday and then turning around and doing it the very next day, it takes a lot of grit, a great attitude and a great mindset to be able to do that," she said. "We competed well with two very good teams. That's what our team did today. It just shows us where this team is going in the future. We just need to keep battling, keep believing in ourselves and keep working."
The Argos will get another opportunity next weekend, with two home games schedule against College of Idaho and Eastern Oregon. Both games will take place at 3:30 p.m. at Argo Field.
"We're going to work every day this week to get better," Blandford said. "We just have to keep that right attitude, that right mindset and keep working on those little things and we're going to find that success."
