After the game, Tiffany Brown finished a sentence for Brittney Lyman. Luckily for the Colorado College women’s soccer team, Brown also finished a scoring opportunity for her teammate Thursday afternoon at Stewart Field.

“I was trying to go through the gap,’’ Lyman said, “but then it deflected off the defender and happened to …”

“It was weird, because I saw her winding up and thought it was going to go past me,” Brown continued. “So I kind of stopped and it hit off the girl in front of me and I was like ‘sick.’ ”

With the ball landing right at her feet, Brown drove it off the inside of the left post and into the net to give the Tigers an insurance goal about halfway through the second half of their 2-0 victory over Northern Colorado.

It was the first goal of the season during the normal course of play for Brown, a senior who leads CC (4-1-2) with four goals. Her three others came off penalty kicks.

Lyman’s official assist on the game-winner by freshman Madison Whitehead was no accident, however.

The Tigers took a quick restart out of their defensive end and Sarah Haizlip pushed the ball up to Lyman on the right wing. Lyman beat two defenders and sent a cross just off the hand of Northern Colorado goalkeeper Kristin Salminen’s to Whitehead on the backside.

“It just kind of rolled off my shin a little,” Whitehead said with a laugh about her first collegiate goal. “ … It was very relieving. And we were just able to attack them more from there.”

The Tigers controlled possession throughout the game and outshot the Bears 12-5 in the first half. Lyman hit the crossbar twice in the first 20 minutes and Brown’s attempt 5 minutes before halftime from about 5 yards out sailed high. Not long after Brown’s second point-blank shot hit the crossbar in the second half, Whitehead scored in the 51st minute.

Northern Colorado (5-3-1), meanwhile, had limited good touches in their offensive third, and CC goalie Caitlin Hulyo easily took away any real chances for her fourth shutout of the year.But it was Brown’s play coach Geoff Bennett was happy to see.

“We need Tiff to score, like she did today,” he said.

Colorado College forward Lauren DiGregorio split the defense of Northern Colorado’s Olivia Deadmond (17) and Brittani Knott during the Tigers’ 2-0 victory over the Bears on Thursday at CC. Photo by BRANDON IWAMOTO/THE GAZETTE