Box Score

ST. GEORGE, Utah (Sept. 13) -- Freshman Nicole Laughlin (Gig Harbor) gave the Central Washington University women's soccer team an early lead, scoring her first collegiate goal in the 35th minute, but the Wildcats were unable to fend off the aggressive Dixie State College Red Storm in a 3-1 loss on Monday afternoon at Walt Brooks Stadium.

Central, which has played its first four matches away from home, fell to 0-3-1 on the season -- its worst four-game start since 2002 -- despite scoring the first goal for the third time in their four contests. Dixie State improved to 3-1-0 on the season with Monday's victory.

“We are struggling,” said CWU head coach Michael Farrand. “We are not making things easy for ourselves, and we have to get some things figured out before we start conference play (on Thursday).”

In the first half, Central got on the board first in the 35th minute when senior Kaycie Hutchins' (Port Orchard/Bellarmine Prep) corner kick found Laughlin in front of the net, where she kicked it into the Red Storm goal for her first tally of the 2010 season to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.

The Red Storm answered back just five minutes later when Rebecca D'Occhio took a pass from teammate Kalehua Howard and hit the top left corner of the Wildcat net from 37 yards out to tie the game at 1-1.

Dixie State scored the go-ahead goal in the 76th minute of the second half as Wendy Stratford found the top left corner of the Wildcat goal from 15 yards out to take a 2-1 lead. Stratford then added an insurance tally 13 minutes later, breaking away from the Wildcat defense and sneaking the ball past Wildcat sophomore goalkeeper C.J. Balstad (Port Orchard/South Kitsap HS) to take a commanding 3-1 lead with only 2:15 left in the contest.

The Wildcat offense was unable to find a rhythm as they were only able to get off two shot attempts against the Red Storm. They were outshot for the fourth straight game, 18-2, marking the fewest shot attempts by a Wildcat team since Sept. 12, 2007 against Seattle Pacific.

Balstad, who made her first collegiate start and just her second career appearance between the pipes, recorded eight saves on 11 shots on goal.

The Wildcats end their five-game road trip with their Great Northwest Athletic Conference opener in Nampa, Idaho, this Thursday (Sept. 16) at 4 p.m. MDT against Northwest Nazarene.