Henrik Sohn saw the final tally on the scoreboard at the south end of Graves Family Sports Complex: No. 21 Oklahoma Wesleyan 4, Kansas Wesleyan 0.
But Sohn, KWU's second-year coach, was far from distraught over what had transpired during the Kansas Conference women's soccer match on a windy Saturday afternoon.
"I don't think we performed bad," Sohn said. "The 4-0 score doesn't really reflect what was going on. You saw how my ladies fought, how they executed – I couldn't be more proud of them."
The Coyotes stayed within striking distance for nearly 64 minutes before the Eagles scored three goals the final 26 minutes.
The loss dropped KWU to 5-2 on the season and 5-1 in conference play. OKWU improved to 8-0 and 6-0.
The Coyotes trailed 1-0 at intermission after OKWU's Tania Nocholi scored in the second minute on an assist from Marjolen Nekesa.
"The first half we made an individual mistake, it happens, it's part of soccer," Sohn said. "If you wouldn't make mistakes you wouldn't get scored on. It's just the nature of the game."
It remained close until OKWU scored two quick goals midway through the second half. Valaria Pankratova scored on a free kick in the 64th minute to make it 2-0, the Eagles made it 3-0 on Daniela Ortiz's goal in the 66th minute and Makayla Zendejas capped the scoring with a goal in the 79th minute.
OKWU had 18 shots, 12 on goal, to KWU's 11 shots, five of them on goal.
Sohn was heartened by the fact his team created several scoring opportunities.
"Overall, we had our chances, we should have put one away early to make it exciting," he said. "But I can't fault the ladies, they played fantastic.
"I told them there's nothing to be ashamed of, we put our heart out there, we played well and I can promise you OKWU doesn't want to play us in the (conference) tournament."
Sohn was pleased with the way his team played after intermission. KWU took seven shots, three on goal, the final 45 minutes.
"We told the ladies (at halftime) let's just play our game, we're a dang good soccer team as well,'" he said. "We came out strong the second half. They executed and really fought them."
The Coyotes travel to Ottawa for a 5 p.m. conference match next Friday in their final action of the fall semester.
KWU has five additional matches remaining on the schedule that will be played in the spring, including make-ups of postponed matches against Saint Mary, Bethel and Avila, along with matches with Southwestern and Sterling that were already scheduled for the spring.
--kwucoyotes.com--