Michigan Tech midfielder Sophie Rater corrals the ball during a game against St. Cloud State Sunday at Kearly Stadium in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — Looking for a better result than their 1-0 loss in their season opener Friday, the Michigan Tech Huskies soccer team again battled to a 0-0 tie after 45 minutes of play. However, in the second half, with just over 15 minutes remaining, they gave up a single goal, and then weren’t able to find an equalizer, falling to the St. Cloud State Huskies, 1-0, at Kearly Stadium Sunday afternoon.

That isn’t to say that Michigan Tech didn’t have chances. Despite dealing with injuries suffered against the Bulldogs, the Black and Gold battled into the 74th minute in a scoreless draw.

“They’re a good team again, historically a good team over the years,” said Michigan Tech coach Melissa Kuhar. “(The) same coach has been there. So, we knew we were going to get a battle. We’re sore and banged up from Friday, so we didn’t necessarily play our best at moments. But again, there were bright spots in there. We have to learn to kind of push the tempo and control the game on our end.

“Overall, there’s a lot again to learn from and we move forward.”

Michigan Tech battled back and forth with St. Cloud in the first half, both teams had consistent ball control, and the Black and Gold used free kicks to put pressure on St. Cloud keeper Jaylee Strickland. Twice in less than a minute, senior defender Olivia Gette had long free kicks, the first from about 70 yards away that Strickland held on to. The other was from about 40 yards away, a shot that sailed over everyone else on the field the entire way to the net.

St. Cloud had chances of their own. Twice in a matter of two and a half minutes, Linsey Trapino gashed Michigan Tech’s defense, but both times, senior keeper Bri Barrows rushed out to take away time and space, causing Trapino to get rid of the ball faster than she wanted to.

Kuhar is proud of the fact that her team can rely on Barrows, but hopes to get to a point where the team won’t need to lean on her so much.

“I mean, without Bri, it would probably been like 5-0, right? She made some big, big time, 1-vs.-1 saves,” Kuhar said, “when we let them kind of get through some gaps and go at her. She, again, (shows her) leadership back there (which) has been huge. We just have to keep counting on her.

“I wish we could give her a game where she doesn’t have to do much. That would be nice on our end, but she made saves when we needed her to make saves. She might have to do a little bit more of that as we kind of grow through some of those youth pains. But, she was big for us back there.”

Barrows made another key first half stop on Gabby Hofeld when a Michigan Tech defender fell down, and Hofeld found herself in the box with both time and space with 32 minutes left in the first half.

Two minutes after that play, Trapino cut another gash through the Huskies’ defense, but this time Barrows rushed out and grabbed the ball before she could kick it towards the net.

In the second half, Michigan Tech used a number of substitutions to work several players onto the field, which gave a number of freshmen a chance to see significant playing time. One player who did well in the midfield, and even as a defender, was Braydin Noble.

“Braydin Noble stepped up today,” said Kuhar. “We had to throw her back there, and she really stepped up on the back line. She’s a player we can kind of put anywhere on the field and she’s going to give us what we need from her.”

Kuhar knows there is plenty of room for her team to grow with a pair of non-conference opponents coming up this week.

“I just told them they have to believe it,” she said. “Our staff believes it. But, we’ll get better. We will. We’ll get better. It’s going to take some time. For me, our team just needs to be at our best going into conference. These games are learning games as much as … sometimes you don’t want them to be that they’re learning, and we grow from it.

“Our team will get better. I’m not too worried about that. We are young, so you’re talking some players that are getting their first college minutes, some players that didn’t play last year that again are getting first college minutes as well, or in minutes after being injured. So it’s going to take some time.”

Up next

Michigan Tech returns to action Thursday when they host Cedarville at 6 p.m. at Kearly Stadium in Houghton.