Box Score RAPID CITY, S.D. ---it was more of the same for the South Dakota School of Mines soccer team Sunday against the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.
The Hardrockers fell to 1-10 after their 2-0 loss.
A first half goal in the 27th minute from Jake McAllister on the assist from Nik Newcamp, and Colorado Springs scored again in the 52nd minute when Alex Vonholle headed a pass from Cort Searls past Mines goaltender Kyle Daleovich to make it 2-0.
Despite the loss, Mines head coach Jordan Kalec said he was happy with his team's effort.
"I thought overall we played pretty well," he said. "Especially in the first half. Our scouting report showed that if you make any mistake against them they're going to pounce on it, and that's what happened with the first goal."
Colorado Springs outshot Mines 11-6 in the game and Colorado Springs goaltender David Meyer had four saves on the day compared to Daleovich's two.
One of the reasons that Mines was outshot nearly 2-1 was because Colorado Springs was able to shut down Justin Barkow, who is second in the Rocky Mountain Conference in shots attempted.
"Just Barkow up top has been phenominal for us, and he's second in the conference in shots so he's a dangerous player," Kadlec said. "UCCS did a good job of shutting him down today, and I think that was the difference."
Kadlec said the fact that Mines had a game on Friday didn't help their conditioning throughout the game Sunday.
"That's the hardest half to play in college soccer," Kadlec said. "The second half of a Sunday game when you played the Friday before."
Mines will have to endure another Friday-Sunday series of games this week when they take on MSU-Denver and Colorado Springs again on the road.
Mines brief home stint is over for now, and of the six games remaining on their schedule four of them are at home.
The next two, however, are not. Kadlec said he is going to need to motivate his players to keep playing hard as the season winds down despite their 1-10 record.
"We're going to try to get better everyday, and at this point in the season you just have to take it one day at a time," he said. "We're going to do our best and hope that our guys can stay motivated during the season."
Staying motivated isn't easy, with a difficult stretch coming up and nurturing a 1-10 record.
"When it gets tough is when there are six games left and you aren't seeing the results you want to," he said. "So we'll see the character of our guys over the next three weeks and hopefully we'll see some results."
Mines next game against MSU-Denver on Friday starts at 7 p.m.
