NEWPORT–After a deluge of rain soaked the fields across the North Country campus on Thursday, Friday found the sun shinning and Jose Batista Field nice and dry for the Falcon girls match against the U-32 Raiders.

The Falcons came into this game undefeated, and were looking to keep a clean sheet in the loss column.

Unfortunately for the Falcon Faithful, the Raiders had other ideas.

The visitors would withstand a constant onslaught of looks and chances from their hosts to come away with a 2-1 win, handing NCU their first loss of the season.

“We struggled a bit today with the things that normally make us good,” said Falcons coach Pete Kellaway after the game. “From a statistical perspective, we were very dominant in today’s match, but with that said we still have to finish our opportunities and we just didn’t do that today. U-32 is a well-coached team, and the longer we let them hang around, sooner or later they are going catch a break and they finally did.” 

It was a little quiet in the early going, which is no surprise, given the fact that North Country hadn’t played a game in nearly a week.

The first shot of the game off of a U-32 direct kick, which Falcon goalie Randi Fortin handled easily.

Going the other way, the Falcons’ Rachel Scherer fed Dakotah Bowen for a chance that resulted in a corner.

Bowen got another look off of the corner, but it was blocked before it could reach the net.

Ever the grinder, Bowen kept at it, sending another shot wide of the frame.

Scherer found Molly Machinist open for a shot, but her offering went over the crossbar.

It would be Quinne Poulin getting the first shot on Raider tendy Zofia Willis, but her shot was stopped.

Bowen was then denied by Willis, and soon after she sent a through ball to Myrah Kearse, whose shot missed the net.

Avery Sykes jumped into the play, but both of her shots were blocked by Raider defenders, leading to another NCU corner.

Gaby Griffith, who would make some quiet runs up the field to get into the offense throughout the game, came in for the corner, but her shot was blocked once again, as the U-32 defense continued to give the Falcons fits.

The visitors were able to get the ball out of their end after this corner, and Mollie Mislak lofted a ball towards the NCU cage, which Randi deftly grabbed and punted back down the field.

Poulin send a shot wide, Leah Deslandes, who had recently checked into the game, missed high.

Machinist and Bowen both had looks as time expired, but no dice, and it would be a frustrated Falcons team that went into the break tied at 0-0.

North Country started the second where they left off in the first, but unfortunately for them, so did Willis.

The Raiders goalie made a nice grab on a Bowen chance, then after Scherer had a shot blocked on a corner, Willis made a stop on beastly long-range shot by Isabel Gaudreau.

Scherer was denied, then sent a shot wide, and now the Raiders looked to make a statement.

Fortin was able to make to great save on U-32’s Elena Noyes, but on the ensuing corner, Sylvia Emmons floated the ball into the box and it appeared to deflect off of Fortin’s hand into the back of the net with 26:32 remaining in the half.

It seemed like North Country had plenty of time to get this one back, but for the next eleven minutes they just could not get their attack coordinated, getting just a shot that missed wide from Bowen.

With a little over 15 minutes left on the clock, Mislak was able to sneak past the Falcons’ defenders and go in all alone against Fortin, scoring what would turn out to be the game-winner.

Now a bit of panic started to set in, as things had gone from bad to worse in an instant.

Nevertheless, back came the Falcon offense with a shot from Aubrey Jacobs, which was stopped, as were shots by Gaudreau and Sykes.

With less than a minute to go, Alexis Bartley broke through on a scramble in front of the Raider goal after a corner, but it would not be enough, as the visitors held on to upset their host by a one-goal margin.

Fortin finished the game with 3 saves, while Willis stopped 8.

“We have a very good team and we feel this is just a blip on the pathway to the playoffs,” said Kellaway. “After the game we discussed that when driving down the road you can’t go forward looking in the rear view mirror and that we have to look forward as we move forward. We will regroup and get back after it on Monday at Harwood.”

Now standing at 7-1, and as the coach mentioned, the Falcons will hit the road on Monday to take on Harwood.

Game time is set for 4:30.