HOUSTON – HBU couldn't stop Grand Canyon as Niki Jackson scored a hat-trick in the Lopes' 3-2 victory over the Huskies in a Western Athletic Conference soccer match.
"Tough loss tonight," head coach
Steve Jones commented after the loss. "Grand Canyon has some very good players in the attack, that gave us some troubles tonight. The boys fought hard to get back in the game on two separate occasions, unfortunately we made too many little errors in the wrong moments and they did a good job of capitalizing on those. We have to learn from this quickly move forward into our next match that is less than 48 hourse and on the road."
The first half was full of action as Jackson tallied his first goal in the 16
th minute by picking it off of the Huskies (3-6-1, 1-2-0 WAC) defense after attempting to clear a previous shot. Jackson kept his cool as he slipped the ball in the bottom left side netting, just missing sophomore goalkeeper
Chance Pope's glove as he stretched to attempt to make the save. In the 29
th minute a combination that started from freshman forward
Malik Key to sophomore midfielder
Josue Palomino who crossed it to junior midfielder Marc-Anthone tied the game 1-1 from eight yards out to the bottom right of the goal. Jackson gave the Lopes (4-5-2, 1-0-2 WAC) a 2-1 lead as he dribbled from about 45 yards out to bury the ball in the back of the net in the 36
th minute of the match.
The Huskies scored the equalizer in the 63
rd minute from an original shot from sophomore defender
Bryan Brody which had the keeper going one way, but the late deflection of junior forward
Brandon Smith made for an easy goal. Pope came out big as he made a full stretch dive to make a save from a header off of a free kick to keep the game tied in the 82
nd minute. Jackson used his head from Hector Montalvo to complete his hat-trick and sealed the win for Grand Canyon in the 87
th minute, ending the game 3-2.
The Huskies were led offensively by Smith with two shots on goal out of the team's four and Pope did the defensive work making four saves with three goals against.
Jackson led the Lopes with four of the teams seven shots on goal, while Kendyl Day took home the win making one save with two goals against. The team had a save in the 63
rd minute as a defender used his body to save the header shot from Smith.
The Huskies will travel to Seattle, Washington to take on WAC member Seattle on Sunday, 9 p.m. CDT.
