DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake women's soccer team suffered its second loss of the season on Sunday as their Bulldog counterparts from Butler left town with a 5-3 result. The home Bulldogs scored first but could not keep Butler from bouncing back.
 
Drake (0-2-2) scored early and often as Zoey Mahoney drew first blood in the eighth minute after a Haley Horman assist. Just two minutes later, in the 10th, Preseason All-MVC selection Angela Gutierrez added to the Bulldogs' early run after receiving an Eve Blakey assist. Both goals were the first of the season for their respective scorers.
 
Butler (2-0-1) retaliated with three unanswered goals of their own as Abigail Isger netted a penalty kick score in the 16th minute and added an unassisted goal in the 19th stanza. Talia Sommer then deposited her second score of the season following an Anna Schroeder assist to work all the way back in front, 3-2.
 
The Bulldog hosts equalized in turn just 40 seconds later. Layla Kelbel collected Blakey's second assist of the day for her first goal of the year to tie the score at three apiece.
 
The high-scoring first half continued in the 39th minute when Butler's Leila Lister was assisted by Lea Larouche to again snap the stalemate. The road Bulldogs added what was eventually the final blow just before the halftime horn when Alexei Whittaker dished to Macie Mietz. Butler went into the half leading 5-3.
 
Drake did their best to chase down Butler in the second half, keeping BU off the board, but unfortunately matched the scoreless nature of the period. Butler held on to win a dramatic match, 5-3.
 
"We had an amazing start to the game," Drake head coach Lindsey Horner said. "We knew that Butler set up in a high-risk, high-reward type of formation, and that absolutely impacted the first half. They're a very good team so I'm so pleased that we put three goals away against them, but when we look back at the goals, we conceded I think our whole team will agree they came from mistakes we made, and we can clean up. It's unfortunate that Avery picked up an injury so early.  Anytime you play without your captain center back it changes the dynamic of our backline."
 
Butler outshot Drake 19-7 overall and 11-4 in attempts on target. In goal, Addie Ford made six saves for Drake while Butler's Anna Pierce had one.
 
"The positive part of today is that the errors in each of our goals against are fixable," Horner added. "We end this stretch of tough games and know we know so much more about ourselves as a team. We know we can tidy up our clearances and off the ball defensive positioning and over the next few games be a team that's tough to score on. We also have now shown that we are capable of scoring a variety of goals. We head back on the road for some gritty opponents. These games won't be easy, and it will be a different challenge. It's easy to get excited to play big named opponents at home, but now we have to produce the same energy on the road."
 
Drake is now set for a three-game tour of the Summit League starting on Thursday, Aug. 29 at South Dakota. They'll head to Omaha from there for a Sep. 1 tilt at the Mavericks before visiting South Dakota State on Sep. 8.