By Jeremy Villanueva, SHSU Sports Information

Box Score

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Sam Houston State soccer played to its third overtime game of the Southland Conference season Friday against Northwestern State at Pritchett Field but dropped the contest 3-2. Freshman forward Kaylee Davis notched her fourth goal of the season, hammering home a goal in the 13th minute for the early Bearkat lead. Freshman winger Hayden Oswalt opened up her scoring record at SHSU with an equalizer in the opening two minutes of the second half.

Sam Houston (2-11-1, 2-3-1) returns to the road next Friday for a dual against Southeastern Louisiana before facing Nicholls two days later. The Lady Demons (10-3-1, 5-1) travel to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi next Friday.

First Half
Sam Houston jumped out to the early 1-0 lead when freshman midfielder Taylor Pritchard found Davis inside the box to record her second assist of the season. The Bearkats maintained the lead until the Lady Demons' Esdeina Gonzalez had a one-on-one breakaway against freshman goalkeeper Anna Kaiser. Gonzalez worked her way past Kaiser and fired home into an empty net to make it 1-1. In the 43rd minute, NSU substitute duo Jordy Warren and Cache Haley combined for a goal to put the Lady Demons up going into the half. It was Haley's second goal of the season.

Second Half
The Bearkats bounced back quickly in the second half. Senior winger Madison Cannon earned her team-leading third assist of the season when she crossed a ball to the back-post, finding Oswalt's head to tie the game. Sam Houston continued to press as the half continued, forcing Lady Demon's goalkeeper Alex Latham to save four shots on goal.

Overtime
No team was able to end the match in the opening overtime period, but it took NSU just one minute and 11 seconds in the second overtime period to find the back of the net. The Bearkat defense blocked a threatening ball at goal but couldn't stop Lady Demon Brittany Caserma from slamming the rebound home for her fourth goal of the season.

KEY STATS
Sam Houston's 10 shots on goal was its highest of the season. The previous season-high was nine shots on goal in the 2-2-overtime tie against Houston Baptist on Sept. 23. Senior Allie Johnson, junior transfer Beryl Smith and Davis led the charge with two shots on goal apiece. Oswalt, Cannon, sophomore Lindsey Bienski and senior Maddy Panozzo added one each.

QUOTABLES
Head coach Tom Brown on the result…
“I was disappointed that we ended up losing the game tonight. I thought we did a good job of putting them under pressure quite a bit. We had a very quick goal to open up the second half, but unfortunately, we weren't able to find the back of the net.”

Head coach Tom Brown on the team's play on the wings…
“It was one of the key things we talked about at the beginning of the game; getting the ball into the flanks and allowing them to take the players on. I thought we did a good job of getting the ball to the flank players. We weren't always able to get the service always from where we expected it. Cannon did an outstanding job of taking their players on and trying to cause problems.”

Head coach Tom Brown on moving forward…
“I just think we have to play and stay within our game plan over the course of 90 minutes. We can't go in-and-out. We can't play how other teams want to play. I think our style and what will work for us is different than what works for other teams. So when we get caught up in the way they want to play a flow in the game, it causes issues for us.”