A pair of goals by North Texas' Carly McDowell was the difference as the Ragin' Cajuns soccer team dropped its Sun Belt opener to the Mean Green, 2-0, on Friday evening at the Cajuns Track/Soccer Facility.

"I am happy with the way we worked tonight," head coach Scot Wieland said. "The team worked hard and battled in the air and on fifty-fifty balls. North Texas scored on two mistakes. What did us in wasn't our work ethic or that they were a better team. We just gave the ball away too easy. You can't win conference games when you give away the ball that easy. We've got to work on that."

The Cajuns (5-5-0, 0-1-0 SBC) were outshot 15-4 in the match by North Texas (6-3-1, 1-0-0 SBC). The Mean Green also held a 6-1 edge in corners.

Despite surrendering two goals on the night, senior keeper Amanda Moorefield played tough as she recorded one save and spoiled many opportunities for North Texas.

"Amanda did a heck of a job tonight," Wieland added. "1v1 breakaways aren't easy, and Amanda was able to get a piece of both of them. Those are tough plays and both came off of mistakes. She really did a good job of keeping them from getting point blank shots all night long."

The Mean Green broke into the scoring column in the 17th minute when McDowell collected a long pass from Allison Guderian and placed a shot into the net past Moorefield.

McDowell notched her second goal of the night in the 47th minute off of a loss pass from Karla Pineda. McDowell was able to run onto the ball and beat Moorefield 1v1 to increase the Mean Green advantage to 2-0.

Louisiana's best opportunity came in the 70th minute on a shot by Kayla Henrie that forced NT keeper Jackie Kerestine to make a save on the ground.

The Cajuns return to action on Sunday at 1 p.m. when they head to Natchitoches, La. for the final non-conference match of the season against Northwestern State.


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