Up and down seems to be the theme for the Wildcats as they have alternated losses and wins going into their fifth regular season game.

Currently sitting with a 2-2 record in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, fourth-ranked Central has an opportunity to better their standings in this Saturday’s home game against the sixth-ranked Western Oregon Wolves.

The Wildcats first game of the regular season ended with a decisive 3-0 loss against Western Washington. In the second GNAC match-up however, freshman Mackenzie Nolte boosted the Wildcats to a 4-0 win over Simon Fraser University after scoring two goals.

“We’re still a work in progress, good things are happening but there is inexperience that just takes time to work out,” Head Coach Michael Farrand said.

Montana State University Billings handed the Wildcats their second loss in a 0-1 shutout. Central’s defense was unable to get a break as the Yellowjackets outshot the Wildcats 11-to-3 to further their five-game winning streak.

“We just weren’t ready to play. In this league especially, you have to show up and be ready to play your game. That’s part of where our inconsistency has come from,” Michael Farrand said.

It seemed that Northwest Nazarene was on their way to defeat the Wildcats in their fourth GNAC game as Central fell into an early 0-2 deficit. Goals from senior Hadli Farrand and junior Lauren Duty tied the score and forced the teams into overtime. Farrand scored the game-winning goal with a second to spare, giving the Wildcats their second win of the season.

Going into Saturday’s game against the Wolves, Central is looking to break the win/loss trend and up their standings in the league.

“We need to make sure we play our style of offense: keeping possession of the ball and counter-attacking, and do better defensively on free kicks,” forward Hadli Farrand said.

Winning the 50/50 balls during the Simon Fraser game benefited the Wildcats exponentially and will be a team goal heading into the Western Oregon game.

“Our communication needs to improve, but we have a lot of team leaders stepping up this season that haven’t previously. We’re really coming into our own as a team and playing for each other,” keeper Kayla Lipston said.

Kickoff is at 11 a.m. Saturday.