DURANGO, Colo. – The Angelo State soccer team dropped its first game of the season in a 2-0 neutral field loss to Colorado Mesa on Friday at Dirks Field.

The Rambelles (2-1) held the Mavericks scoreless in the first half but saw Leilani Wiernicki score two minutes into the second half on a 30-yard free kick and Sarah Pope tack on insurance in the 73^rd minute. ASU goalkeeper Danielle Edwards finished the game with a season-high five saves.

“They really just kept shooting and took advantage of opportunities,” ASU head coach Travis McCorkle said. “Dani (Edwards) made some great saves for us on breakaways. We allowed them to be too aggressive on offense because we were trying to be more sophisticated than we are. We needed to focus on doing the simple things to stop good offensive teams.”

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ASU had seven players take seven total shots, with Katie Squires and Sierra Anderson putting the two shots on CMU goalkeeper Sarah Schnetzler. Ashley Exford, Hanna Horeis, Maggie Schaffer, Lauren Carnes and Kayla Gregory accounted for the other shots.  

“Our forwards need to make more dynamic runs and our midfielders need to start playing our forwards into those runs,” McCorkle said. “Right now both sides are waiting to see what the other players are going to do. Nobody took the bull by the horns to take over the game.”

The Rambelles return to action at noon on Sunday against No. 5 Fort Lewis. The Sky Hawks are the South Central's top ranked team and will enter their home field game against ASU with a 2-0 having not played since taking a 4-2 win over Texas A&M-Commerce last Sunday.

“I want to see us make simpler decisions and make them correctly,” McCorkle added. “We have to move off the ball and communicate better. Fort Lewis is a very good team and we have to show that we can rebound from a loss. This next game will test our team's character and we have to show that we can play better than we did today.”