Alex Eisen/MDN Minot State junior defender Jessica Ochoa (right) tackles the ball away from Ferris State attacker Gabrielle Teodorescu (left) in the first half of a Division II women’s soccer game Friday evening at Herb Parker Stadium.

The Minot State women’s soccer team needed the entire first half Friday evening to get settled in. Head coach Chris Clements was far from pleased and expressed his frustrations at halftime.

Clements was blunt and told the Beavers “to show up.”

“You got to work hard, this is college soccer,” Clements continued. “Nothing is going to be given to you. You got to earn every second of it.”

A stronger second half followed, but the damage was already done. No. 15-ranked Ferris State (Mich.) spoiled MSU’s home opener with a pair of first-half goals in a 2-0 victory.

Ferris State (2-0-1) pounced on a ball not cleared in the box to score the opening goal eight minutes in. Abigail Gilmore cleaned up MSU’s defensive breakdown for her first goal of the season.

“We have a lot of freshmen and new players,” Clements said. “And they’re still not used to working hard. Our transition was lackadaisical, and we weren’t getting back. We would lose the ball and we would jog. We can’t do that.”

The Bulldogs doubled up with 13:17 left in the first half. Grace VerHage raced up the sideline and squared a pass over to Pia Nagel for a simple tap-in around diving MSU goalkeeper Erin Rafferty.

Ferris State took a 2-0 lead into halftime.

“Yeah, there are going to be breakdowns,” Clements said. “There were (more) breakdowns in the second half, but we were able to recover from them with effort.”

The Beavers (0-2) picked up their intensity and time with possession in the second half. It nearly turned into a goal right away with Sofia Lewis pressing the Bulldogs’ backline.

Then, newcomer Kelsey Pena tried to make her mark with 23 minutes remaining. The freshman split two Ferris State defenders while cutting in from the sideline and curled a shot toward the back post.

Goalkeeper Alison Chesterfield laid out, but couldn’t get a glove on it. She looked back to see the ball ricochet off the post.

“I definitely thought it was going in,” Pena said. “Unfortunately, I heard the post clink because I was on the ground… It could have been (a different game). We could have won. That would have brought us up even higher, and we could have got more shots in.”

Ferris State outshot MSU 15-8 (10-4 shots on target). Lewis led the Beavers with four shots.

“I saw the team I wanted to see, so let’s hope we see it again on Tuesday,” Clements said about the second half. “I have always had a vision of who we can be, and they haven’t shown me. But now, they have shown me and where we are at right now. But we need to be better.”

Closing out the nonconference calendar, MSU hosts Montana State Billings on Tuesday with a 1 p.m. start time at Herb Parker Stadium.

Alex Eisen covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.