Nicholls soccer team still after elusive conference win after 3-0 loss to McNeese

Playing its first Southland Conference home soccer match of the season failed to produce the long sought after league win for Nicholls in a 3-0 loss to McNeese on Sunday afternoon at the Thibodaux Regional Sports Complex.

The Lady Colonels have not won a Southland match since a 2-0 win over former member Stephen F. Austin on October 14, 2018.

“I kind of felt like this is a game we were able to win. I thought there were other games as well. The way we played, I thought we were definitely in a position to get a result,” Nicholls coach Robert Podeyn said.

Nicholls fell to 0-2 in SLC play and 1-10 overall. The Lady Colonels opened conference play with a 5-0 loss at Houston Christian.

The Lady Colonels had possession of the ball for much of the match and managed a total of 16 shots to McNeese’s 15. Nicholls had eight shots each in the first and second half.

“If you take the 90 minutes, I think for 55-60 minutes, we were the better team. We are just young. When we make mistakes, we are giving up goals – and we did. We made three mistakes, we gave up three goals,” said Podeyn.

“They had a lot of the ball today.” McNeese coach Drew Fitzgerald said. “We were OK with that, but mentally, it’s hard. You’ve got to let the team have it and you have to be willing to counter. I thought we did a good job of that. Both the second and third goals were kind of counter plays, which is what we were looking for.”

The game’s first goal came at the 7:34 mark by McNeese’s Linders Anouk from 35 yards out.

“Anouk Linders scored a beautiful goal. She took it off a defender herself. She took the touch and we know she can strike that ball, so when she was winding up, we were all hollering for her to go. It was exciting to see,” said Fitzgerald.

The first of two goals by Magalie Depot gave the Cowgirls a 2-0 lead late in the first half.

“I thought it was offsides,” said Podeyn, referring to the second goal. “I think most thought most thought it was offsides. I think the only one who didn’t was the linesman, and unfortunately, his is the one that counts.

“Up until that moment, I thought we were controlling the play for the most part. It’s just a shame that kind of made it 2-nil because that’s a deeper hole to kind of get out of.”

Depot scored the game’s final goal at the 74:58 mark.

The win improved McNeese to 4-4-2 overall and 1-0-1. The Cowboys went into Sunday’s game coming off a 1-1 tie against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi two days earlier to open SLC play.

“It was a good weekend for us, four points on the weekend. We are really happy with it. I thought there were moments today where we did the right thing. I thought on Friday we were a little better for longer periods, but we did enough to win today, so we are happy with that,” Fitzgerald said.

For Nicholls, the search for the elusive conference win continues.

“The second half, we controlled much of the game, but then we give up the one, and it’s a 3-nil game, when it’s really not. It’s not a game we deserved to lose. I thought it was a game we earned a result, but because we are just so young, we are making those mistakes. Eventually, we will figure it out, but not on this day,” said Podeyn.