Michigan Tech keeper Bri Barrows snags a shot during a game against Northwood Saturday at Kearly Stadium in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — While the final score indicated a tightly-contested game, the Michigan Tech Huskies soccer team struggled in their final non-conference matchup Saturday in a 2-0 loss to Northwood at Kearly Stadium.

Huskies coach Melissa Kuhar was blunt about her team’s performance against a Great Midwest Athletic Conference opponent.

“(They are a) good team out of that conference, but our standard has to be better,” she said. “We have moments where we (suffer a) lapse of judgment, or lapse of these things, and if we can’t raise our standard, then games are going to be hard to win.”

The Huskies only generated five shorts in the game, with Timberwolves keeper Lindsay Jacob making just one save in the contest. Kuhar admitted that the Huskies need to find a new approach to create more offense.

“They kept a higher line,” she said. “We didn’t really expose that too much, which we should have capitalized on a bit more. We’re struggling with that final third, that pass to set up some of those shots, or to capitalize on some of those opportunities.

“We’re going to have to go back to the drawing board a bit, really try to hone in and get something going up there. It’s just not enough right now.”

The Huskies play several of their 12 freshmen, but Kuhar doesn’t want to use that as an excuse.

“It’s part of it, but (we are) beating a horse dead with that comment, right? We can’t make that comment consistently now,” she said. “We have to figure it out. We’re four games in. We have to be able to figure it out. They should have game experience by now.”

The Timberwolves broke the scoreless tie at 31:12 when Mari Jackson stretched out and tipped a pass from Claire Gonyea past Huskies keeper Bri Barrows.

Carly Boyd had several looks in the second half that Barrows had to find ways to keep out of the net. The first came a minute and a half in on a free kick from the left side. One of the Huskies defenders tried to play the blocked shot with her head and knocked it back towards Barrows.

Boyd had another look about eight minutes later off a free kick at the top of the box, but Barrows stopped it and the rebound try by Ava Kettler.

Boyd found her younger sister Ella with another pass a minute later, but again Barrows was there to make the save.

“Our back line and Bri have saved us countless times when we make mistakes, or even when they make mistakes in the back line, and they’re having to bail themselves out a bit,” said Kuhar. “It’s a different game if we don’t have some of those chances kind of controlled back there by that back line.”

The Timberwolves finally broke through a second time at 81:55 when Carly Boyd’s pass found Ashtyn Lange, who was driving through the Huskies’ defense. Lange quickly got a kick off to beat Barrows.

Kuhar wants to see more from her team.

“I’m upset about it, and I think the girls are, but the games keep coming, and we’ll go back to the drawing board,” she said. “We’ll raise the standard as a group, and then, hopefully, kind of can get some things rolling and moving. (We) just have to keep the belief. It’s tough when you’re 0-4, but you have to keep the belief and do it together.

“We are in control of the narrative. That’s kind of the thing. We control our own fate. So, we just have to kind of elevate that a bit. We’ll get better. We’ll get better. It’s steady improvements game after game, so I’m optimistic. But, we have to figure it out sooner or later here.”

Up next

The Huskies hit the road to open GLIAC play on Friday when they travel to face Wisconsin-Parkside at 1 p.m. Sunday, the Huskies face Roosevelt with a 1 p.m. start as well.