DURANGO, Colo. – Winners of three straight heading into play Friday night, the Colorado School of Mines men's soccer team opened their final road trip of the season with a trip to the southwest corner of the state to take on Fort Lewis. Unfortunately for the Orediggers (4-5-5, 3-3-1), they were unable to sustain that momentum and weren't able to overcome an early deficit against the Skyhawks (9-3-2, 5-1-1), as an attempt at a late rally came up short and resulted in a 5-2 loss.
 
Fort Lewis went up 2-0 before Mines could even settle into the flow of the match, as Loic Jean-Baptiste scored 84 seconds into the night before Anton Hjalmarsson doubled the lead to 2-0 in the fourth minute.
 
The defense buckled down and went to work while the offense looked to get on the board and start working away at the deficit. Chris Seery had the first crack of the night on goal for the Orediggers in the 13th minute, but Lucas Martin had other ideas as he was able to make the save. Caden Allaire bounced back with his first save of the night in the 18th minute to keep it a two-score contest.
 
Following the Allaire save, Mines held FLC without a shot for the remainder of the half while managing three of their own, with the final one coming from Quin Collins who looked to go top shelf on Martin but came up empty as the first half came to an end.
 
With renewed energy coming out in the second half, the Orediggers got on the board to cut the lead to one in the 59th minute. John Burnett came away with a lose ball off a Skyhawk turnover and played it ahead to Collins while being all but run over from behind by a defender. Collins collected the pass and fired a strike at goal as he too hit the deck, but this time his shot found nylon instead of leather as the shot evaded Martin to make it a 2-1 game.
 
That score didn't remain long as almost immediately after the restart, Gabriel Legendre scored for FLC to again make it a two-goal game at 3-1 in the 62nd minute. Just about eight minutes later, the Skyhawks scored again to make it 4-1 as Hjalmarsson pocketed his second goal of the night.
 
After another Fort Lewis goal by Matt Baldridge made it a 5-1 game in the 82nd minute, the Orediggers tried to stage the rally to end all rallies in the waning minutes. Shortly after the restart, it was Mines who struck back with a goal as Maxwell Stultz came up with a ball headed back toward midfield by an FLC defender. He played it ahead to Seery at the top of the arc outside the penalty area and managed to play through contact with a defender to bury a shot in the upper right corner to close to within 5-2. However, a comeback for the ages wasn't to be as despite mass subs late in an effort to get fresh legs on the field, the Orediggers saw their winning streak come to an end.
 
NOTABLES
-Collins' goal was his second of the season and second in as many matches as he increases his career total to eight goals
-Seery's goal was his team-leading fifth of the season and fourth in the last five matches as the Englishman tied his single-season high mark in scoring set last season and now has 14 career goals
-Burnett picked up the assist on the Collins goal to move into a tie with Alex Gonzalez for the team lead at three; the assist also sets a new single-season high mark in his career as he now has six during his time at Mines
-Stultz was credited with an assist on the Seery goal and is the first of his Mines career as well as the first point of his career
-Allaire finished the night with four saves in goal before turning things over to Peter Saunders for the final seven minutes of the night
-Raul Gerhardus logged a career-high 40 minutes off the bench in his second action of the season after debuting Sunday
-Mines finished the evening with a 17-13 advantage in shots, but FLC had a 9-5 edge in shots on goal
 
UP NEXT
The Orediggers play the second leg of their three-match road trip Sunday at 1 p.m. in Alamosa against Adams State.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines men's soccer on Twitter and Instagram at @MinesMSOC and @mines_msoc. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.