CEDAR CITY, Utah - The SUU soccer team (2-7-1) hosted their third Big Sky conference game Sunday against the Wildcats of Weber State (5-5-1). After two early goals and a controversial “no goal” call, the Thunderbirds would lose the game 2-1. Head coach Becky Hogan was high on her team after the game saying,

“This is going to be one of those games where, once we get some distance and get a chance to watch it again, we're going to feel really good about it. It's a bitter pill to swallow since I feel that we outplayed them in the first half and we played them off the field in the second half, but just couldn't score enough.”

Less than four minutes into the game, forward Lana Willard would head a ball past goalkeeper Destiny Collins off a pass from the left side by midfielder Kelsi Tatton to put the Wildcats up 1-0 early.

After a string of four shots in a little more than 10 minutes by the Thunderbirds, Weber State would strike once more when forward Paige Stevens crossed a ball from the left side, off the right post, and into the goal to make the score 2-0 Weber. That score would hold through the rest of the first half and for much of the second half.

With less than 20 minutes left to play, a penalty would give SUU a free kick taken by junior Jessica French. French kicked it towards the goal from the far right side of the goal where her ball found a leaping Shelby Green who was able to head the ball in a different direction and into the back of the net to cut the Wildcat lead in half.

The Thunderbirds would find themselves with another opportunity to score with less than 11 minutes left to play. A scramble in front of the goal ended with junior Ally Thimsen passing the ball out to fellow junior Payton Bonino who then shot the ball and seemed to score, until the ball was ruled to have not crossed into the goal before goalkeeper Sydnie Brough picked it up.

The Thunderbirds outshot the Wildcats 11-6, but ultimately the Wildcats would walk away with a 2-1 victory. The team will be on the road next weekend with games against Northern Colorado and North Dakota.