PUEBLO, Colo. – Concordia-St. Paul (8-7) was unable to climb out of a seven goal deficit in the second, falling 18-14 at Colorado State University Pueblo (4-7) on Friday early evening at Gonzales Field.

Concordia will close out its inaugural season next Friday night, April 21 at 5 p.m. in its first home outdoor game at Sea Foam Stadium against the University of Indianpolis.
 
In their final road game of 2017, Concordia-St. Paul looked to rekindle the magic from their road opener back on March 3 in Kansas City at Rockhurst University. In that game, Concordia trailed 11-7 with just under 18 minutes to go. CSP went on a 9-1 scoring run to finish with a 16-12 win, including the final seven goals of the game.
 
On this late afternoon in Pueblo, the odds were slightly longer to stage a comeback as CSP fell behind by seven goals with just under 25 minutes to play. Concordia cut the deficit to two twice and with plenty of time remaining (16:46 and 15:57) before the host ThunderWolves were able to rekindle their offense down the stretch.
 
The Golden Bears finish their road schedule in the inaugural season with a strong 4-5 record including a pair of wins at Division II opponents while competing strong against a pair of nationally-ranked teams. Most importantly, the young squad learned how to navigate the rigors of extended trips, long mileage and maintaining their coursework as predominantly first year student-athletes.
 
Freshman Maddie Hentges led Concordia with five goals while freshman Kailey Heinl had three goals and an assist. Sophomore Sheala Osborne (2g, 1a) and freshman Kaci Reid (1g, 2a) each contributed three point games as well.
 
Facing a busy day in the cage, freshman Katie Lottsfeldt added 11 more saves to her season total while facing 37 shots (29 on goal).
 
Leah Neumann led CSUP with six goals while Allison Wurscher had a goal and four assists for the opposition.
 
Concordia started the game strong, jumping out to a 3-1 lead in the game's first seven and a half minutes. The Thunderwolves responded in a big way, scoring the next six goals as part of a 10-1 scoring run including the first four goals in the opening five-plus minutes of the second half.
 
Applying important lessons learned in Wednesday's loss at #15 Regis when the team continued to play aggressive until the final buzzer, Concordia kept working to get back into the game.
 
Facing an 11-4 deficit with under 25 minutes to play, the Golden Bears opened a 6-1 scoring run to cut the gap to 12-10 with 16:46 to play in the game.

But the ThunderWolves scored three of the next four goals over the next five and a half minutes to claim a 15-11 advantage with under 12 minutes to play.
 
During an 11:31 stretch of play in the second half (26:40 to 15:09), the two teams combined to score 14 of the game's goals in a flurry of action. In the final 15 minutes, however, only seven goals were scored with CSU-Pueblo holding the 4-3 advantage down the stretch using ball control to drain extended time off the clock while limiting Concordia's offensive chances and stifling the comeback momentum.
 
In one of the more action packed games of the season, the teams combined for 65 turnovers (CSP 35, CSUP 30), 40 fouls (20 each), 57 ground balls (CSP 25, CSUP 32) and 66 shots (CSP 29, CSUP 37).
 
In the game of whistles, featuring a pace of play that led to nearly a two and a half hour long game, Concordia was flagged for seven penalties including a pair of two-man advantages for the home team leading to a pair of man-up goals. The host ThunderWolves were flagged just once in the game, a penalty CSP was not able to capitalize on late in the first half and into the early part of the second.
 
Osborne added three ground balls, three draw controls and a pair of caused turnovers to her three point stat line while Heinl had five draw controls and a pair of ground balls.
 
Freshman Alina Boyce had a goal and an assist, adding three ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers while sophomore Kallie LaValle had a pair of assists, three draw controls and two ground balls. Freshman Sidney Schreiner also had three ground balls for CSP.