DENVER – Misfortune, early and late, sent the MSU Denver men's soccer team to a 2-1 defeat Thursday night against Westminster.
 
"We've been playing really good stuff, I think the best stuff since I've been here, for a decent part of the season," said forward Aaron Biggerstaff, a fourth-year junior. "But that's life, and that's the way the game goes. God has a bigger plan than we can see. It's frustrating, but there's a lot of positive at the same time. The result is the main thing, but we've talked about having good performances and playing well and we've been doing that."
 
The Roadrunners surrendered an own goal at 17:33, and spent the next 61 minutes of playing team fighting to find the equalizer.
 
Finally, defender Jackson Vander Ven was taken down in the box and Biggerstaff stepped up and scored on the penalty kick for his sixth goal of the season and 16^th of his career at 78:46.
 
But less than six minutes later, Westminster scored the game-winner.
 
"To spot a good team a goal like that, we knew it was going to be a fight," MSU Denver coach Nick Kirchhof said. "But I loved our composure. We kept passing and kept playing, and we found cracks in their system. We finally scored, and it's so tough to give up the second one, especially the way we did because we looked like we were the team that was going to score the next goal."
 
Westminster improved to 6-3-2 overall and 3-0 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, while MSU Denver dropped to 3-6-2 and 1-2.
 
"I'm pleased with how we played, it's just unfortunate not to get something from it," Kirchhof said.
 
"Hopefully, karma-wise, (the own goal) will even itself out, late in the season when we need a win. It was disappointing, but our resilience and response … we kept playing well. I told the guys we've got plenty of games left, but we've got to make sure we keep attacking it with the same mindset, the same dedication, as today, and hopefully we get something to fall our way."
 
MSU Denver has a tough Sunday assignment ahead, a noon contest at Colorado Mesa (7-2-2, 2-0-1) which won 3-2 Friday at Colorado School of Mines.
 
"We're maturing as a team," Biggerstaff said. "We've lost a big game this season, we've won a big game this season. One game doesn't define us. We've played well two or three games in a row now and just haven't had things go our way. It's persistence. That's pretty much all we can do. Keep knocking. Keep asking questions of the other team and hope we're able to find a result."