Nugent was quick to praise his defense in Tuesday’s press conference.

“All year we have had this bend don’t break mentality defensively… We lasted, we didn’t give up a goal and we found a way to score at the end,” Nugent said.

Despite getting the win, Nugent voiced his concerns for an offense that has had trouble scoring in the past and was only able to get on the board during the second overtime in the 106th minute.

“I am concerned to the point where we’ve got to have a better mentality in front of the goal and we work on it all the time… It’s the mentality more than anything else,” Nugent said.

A bright spot in the offense was junior Mariah Powers who scored her first goal as a Cougar to lead the team to the win over her former team.

“I couldn’t be happier for someone like Mariah (Powers), it’s kind of a storybook script… There was so much emotion attached to the game to begin with and then for her to make the adjustment and move from the backline to the frontline in the second overtime, it paid off,” Nugent said.

Now the Cougars head back out on the road against Colorado and Utah in what Nugent called the toughest road trip in the conference.

“It’s going to be a little taxing on our lungs but we have trained so hard this year…and we are prepared for that part of it,” Nugent said when speaking about facing the challenge of playing soccer at the high altitudes of Boulder and Salt Lake City.

He also made a point to focus more on the opponents that the team will face rather than the altitude.

“Colorado and Utah, they are very good soccer teams,” Nugent said. “You are talking about a Pac-12 conference that is top in the country… Every team is a great team, every team has something to play for. Points are at a premium in this conference.”

The Cougars take on Colorado at 2:00 p.m. on Friday in Boulder, Colorado. The match will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks.

Reporting by Kevin Vallene