Span of less than two minutes dooms Nicholls soccer team in 2-0 loss to HCU

The coaching staff of the Nicholls soccer team succinctly explained the team’s 2-0 loss to visiting Houston Christian University on Sunday afternoon at the Thibodaux Regional Sports Complex.

“As my assistant, if you take 90 seconds out of the game, it’s 0-0. It was four seconds in the first half and 86 seconds of the second, and that’s where the game was. You take those 90 seconds out and the game is 0-0,” said Nicholls coach Robert Podeyn, alluding to a comment made by assistant coach Juan Garcia.

Nicholls and HCU played through a scoreless first half until the final four seconds of the period when the Lady Colonels allowed a goal by Adi Radwanski to trail at the half.

“We made the mistake right before halftime and we really should have tried to slow things down. We didn’t. We made the mistake, four seconds before the half. Now we’re in a hole instead of 0-0. We probably would have reacted differently had it been 0-0,” Podeyn said.

Moments into the half, Nicholls was behind 2-0.

Playing on a chilly autumn day with a strong wind blowing, HCU’s Mia Salas attempted a kick from about 30 yards out. Kicked from the left side of the field, the ball appeared as though it would be wide right, but the wind hooked the ball back to the left, going into the upper right corner of the goal and beyond the reach of Nicholls goalkeeper Megan Cook.

“The second half, we talked about what they were doing and what we needed to do to adjust to. We didn’t do it,” said Podeyn.

Neither team scored the remainder of the contest.

“We finally adjusted about 20 minutes into the second half, and you can start to see where we were getting better opportunities and going forward a bit more,” Podeyn said.

The loss dropped Nicholls to 1-15 overall, including 0-7 in the Southland Conference.

HCU improved to 5-9-0 overall, including 3-5-0 in the Southland. Two of the Huskies’ three conference wins have been against Nicholls.

Nicholls was outshot 15-4 in the game. The Lady Colonels had one shot in the first half and three in the second.

“We are still looking for somebody else to shoot,” said Podeyn. “We have to start being a bit more aggressive.”