The girl’s varsity soccer team fell 4-2 to the Oakcrest Chargers in a tough and competitive second game of the season on Thursday afternoon. 

Early on, the Lions lacked scoring opportunities while the Chargers had many shots. After a back and forth between the two teams and several saves by senior goalie Hailey Weiss, the Chargers scored the first goal of the game. 

Varsity girls soccer Coach Jay Matula thinks that the team struggled to maintain possession and control over the ball. 

“The overall ball control is what we really need to focus on because we do well once we do pass the ball and move it the way we would like, but the ball control is what is hurting us right now in the games we have had,” Matula said. 

Towards the end of the first half, the Lions started to gain more momentum and were able to get down the field with clean passing, resulting in multiple scoring opportunities. After many missed opportunities from the Lions, freshman Talia Sporkin scored a goal.

As the first half came to a close, the Chargers scored another goal that barely made it past Weiss, regaining their lead. Even though the Lions were down by one coming into the second half, their motivation was not diminished. Senior Olivia Plotnek thinks that although the team has a lot to improve on in regards to communication, they never gave up even when they were losing. 

“I think we kept our heads up and we kept working and we passed the ball around well and we have our chances, but I think we still need to work on communicating and figuring out who has who [on defense],” Plotnek said. 

Following many failed scoring attempts by the Chargers, the Lions were able to get the ball down the field to put them in a strategic position to score. Junior Addie Bassin had a clean shot to tie up the score. 

Later, Oakcrest was able to squeeze the ball past junior goalie Sophia Miller to reclaim their lead. The Chargers then scored another goal on Weiss to solidify their victory over the Lions. 

Despite Thursday’s loss, Sporkin is looking forward to the rest of the season and to improving the skills of the team as a whole. 

“Every game makes us work harder and work better as a team, so I think that the more games we play and the more practice we get the better we will be and I think we will have a great season,” Sporkin said. 

According to Matula, having experienced players will give his team an advantage as the season progresses. 

“I think that our strengths is [sic] that we have a lot of seniors, a lot of higher players as far as grades and so we do have a lot of experienced players so it is a matter of building up the youth that we do have,” Matula said. 

The Lions will next face the Berman Cougars on Tuesday, September 10.