DENVER – After tying back-to-back national runner-up CSU Pueblo with 13 minutes to go, the MSU Denver men's soccer team was looking for more.
"After we scored to tie it, I thought we were going to score the second," MSU Denver coach
Nick Kirchhof said. "That's how tight the games are in conference. We'll learn and get better from it."
No. 20 CSU Pueblo scored twice in the final eight minutes to sneak away with a 3-1 victory Thursday night at the Assembly Athletic Complex.
"I'm not disappointed at all with how we played," Kirchhof said. "In the final third we could have executed a little better. I thought we dealt with their long throw and their set pieces pretty well, but we gave them too many of them – that's their biggest strength.
"I thought we passed through them very well, and played really well, we just needed to take more shots on target and be a little sharper getting the ball wide, getting crosses and trying to stretch them. That was probably one of our best passing performances since I've been here. I'm very proud of the boys and how they kept fighting, kept searching.
"I told the guys there's no reason to have any heads down, because we played very well."
A long throw in by
Jonas Votaw set up
Luke Bone for the tying goal at 77:00. It was Bone's second goal of the season.
"Luke was fantastic tonight," Kirchhof said. "He was very busy, winning balls, passing."
But the impossibly long throw-in of CSU Pueblo's Ignatius DeMark led to the game-winning goal at 82:39. Besides the dangerous throw-ins, the ThunderWolves also had an 11-2 advantage in corner kicks.
Things don't get easier for the Roadrunners, who dropped to 3-5-1 overall in their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opener.
On Sunday they'll play host to No. 4 UCCS (8-0-1), which beat Colorado School of Mines 1-0 on Thursday. UCCS will be MSU Denver's fourth top-10 opponent and fifth ranked opponent of the season.
"We're used to playing good teams," Kirchhof said. "I thought tonight we showed that we're a good team. … I love how this team is playing right now."