Montana plays to 1-1 draw at Northern Arizona - University of Montana Athletics

Thursday, October 22

Flagstaff, Ariz.

8 PM (MT)

Montana

3-9-1, 1-3-1BSC

Northern Arizona

7-4-4, 3-0-2BSC

Team	1	2	Final F
Montana	1	0	1
Northern Arizona	0	1	1

Photo by: John Sieber

10/22/2026 11:39:00 PM | Soccer

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

Montana scored early, Northern Arizona answered late and the result was a 1-1 draw on Thursday night between the Grizzlies and Lumberjacks in Flagstaff, Ariz.

The tie earned a point for both teams in the chase to make next month's Big Sky Conference Championship in Missoula.

A win would have vaulted the Lumberjacks into a tie for first place in the league standings but a stout defensive effort by the Grizzlies kept the home team out of the net until the closing moments.

Northern Arizona's 34 shots were the second-most ever faced by a Montana team, Avery Heeb's 12 saves were the most by a Griz goalkeeper since 2010 and tied for the eighth-most in program history.

"Great fight from the team from start to finish tonight," said coach Stuart Gore. "This is a hard place to get points from. So we can build off this for Sunday."

Montana had scored just one goal through its first four league matches but was dialed in offensively from the start on Thursday, going up 1-0 in the 16th minute.

On Montana's first corner kick of the match, Megan Wilson-Sofield lofted a ball that Grace Morton headed toward goal.

NAU goalkeeper Lexi Saveski leaped to make the save but she let the rebound come to the ground in front of net, where Caylee Dowler kicked it in for her first goal of the season, the second of her career.

Morton collected the assist, her first, the team's second of the season.

Montana held the lead until the 89th minute, when Elliotte Kortus got a late header past Heeb.

The Grizzlies had previously in the second half survived a potential goal that was waved off for offside and a ball headed toward net that Mia Draper played off the goal line.

Beyond Heeb, it was a team effort by Montana that kept NAU's Micala Boex, the Preseason Big Sky Conference MVP, from adding to her total of 17 career goals.

Boex took 14 shots but only put four of those on goal as Griz defenders forced attempts from distance that sailed wide or high of goal on a windy night in Flagstaff.

With co-captain Lucie Rokos out of the lineup, Wilson-Sofield, Draper, Malli Rude, Cate Gusick and Elli Lewis all played 90 minutes. Morton went 89.

Montana (3-9-1, 1-3-1 BSC) sits alone in eighth place in the Big Sky standings and plays at second-place Northern Colorado (6-5-4, 3-0-2 BSC) at noon on Sunday in Greeley.