COLORADO SPRINGS - Senior
Jeff Bettner had a goal and an assist for the Mountain Lions but their efforts were not enough as the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs fell 4-2 to Mesa State Friday afternoon at Mountain Lion Stadium.
The Mavericks opened the scoring in the 23rd minute when Mitchell Reid took advantage of a missed clearing by UCCS and sent a crossing pass across the front to the goal mouth. Brandon Rood took the pass and knocked it back to the opposite corner, where it hit the goalpost and spun across the goal line.
"We came out a little flat," said UCCS coach Henry Ellis, "but we battled through that and tried to take it to them as much as possible."
Early in the second half, clever passing accounted for the second goal, which occurred at the 55:11 mark. Rood and Marco Angelo generated a crossing pass that found Reid charging toward the post.
Just 23 seconds later Reese Kegans converted on a Mesa State breakaway to put the Mountain Lions behind 3-0.
Freshman
Matt Friesen scored his fifth goal of the season for UCCS from a pass by Bettner at the 6:09 mark.
Four minutes, 45 seconds later
Greg Mileyâ€TMs corner kick got deflected and rebounded by Bettner to score his fifth goal of the season for the Mountain Lions to close the gap 3-2.
"We definitely, absolutely battled we were able to put a couple in the back of the net," said Ellis,"but when your down 3-0 sometimes itâ€TMs hard to come back and I got to give credit to the guys, they didn't stop (and) they kept playing."
With 4:26 remaining in the game Kegans got his second breakaway goal to end the game 4-2.
In his first collegiate start, UCCS freshman
Sean Miller (0-1) made a career-high seven saves, including a spectacular diving tip over the cross bar. Miller was playing in place of
Adam Liszewski, who was suffering the aftereffects of a concussion. Mesa Stateâ€TMs Josh Tinaglia (7-7) earned the win with six saves.
"(Sean) definitely made some strong saves for us and did some good things," said Ellis. "I had no doubt in my mind when we knew Adam couldn't go that Sean would do well."
With the loss UCCS moved to 4-8-2, 2-6-1 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. Mesa State moved to 8-7, 4-5 RMAC.
"We have a big (game) Sunday," said Ellis, "we'll see if we can come back and put the energy back up."
