The Huskies closed out the first half of league play with a pair of losses, 5-1 at Elmira on Sept. 29 and 3-0 at home against Junction City on Thursday in girls soccer.
Elmira scored its first goal within the first 45 seconds, said Coach Ramiro Santana. Cora McKee scored for the Huskies about 20 minutes into the game, tying the game 1-1 at halftime.
“We played pretty good,” Santana said, but a personnel shortage started showing in the second half as Elmira took advantage of a weakened defense to score four more goals.
Allison Wickline, center defender, is possibly out for the season after a knee injury during a game against Cottage Grove the previous week. Chloe Newport, right defender, was out on a red card.
Both are strong defenders, and their absence showed, Santana said.
The Huskies shot the ball 17 times, while Elmira shot it 26 times.
Against Junction City, “we played the first 20 minutes, we did really good,” Santana said. “They’ve just got more speed.”
In that game, the girls’ inexperience on artificial turf was apparent.
Any time the girls try high speed dribbling and chasing the ball, they have a hard time, Santana said. Junction City has a grass field, but four or five players compete in club soccer on artificial turf and are used to it.
His team finally had its first practice on the new artificial turf on Friday because the field is so busy, Santana said. “We need to practice more on the artificial turf.”
On the turf, the ball moves faster and bounces more, Santana said. When they start sprinting with the ball, it gets away from them.
“Our team is strong, but we don’t have any speed,” Santana said. “When it comes to running, that’s where we’re not comparable to other teams.”
Junction City scored a pair of goals in the first half, Santana said, and then one more in the second half. In the last 25 minutes of the game, the Huskies held the upper hand but didn’t connect.
Hailey Nicholson had 27 saves on the game. The Huskies shot the ball some 33 times.
The Huskies move into the second half of league on Thursday when they host Sisters at 7 p.m. They play at Sutherlin at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13.