Sweet Home’s girls soccer players were unable to find the back of the net last week, losing at No. 4-ranked Philomath 8-0 on Oct. 12 and at home to No. 11 Sisters 2-0 on Oct. 14.
Against the highly ranked Warriors, Head Coach Ramiro Santana said “We actually played alright. Their team is pretty good when it comes to passing. They are very quick.”
Senior defender Meagan Baham was sick and did not play in the match, an absence that hurt the Huskies, Santana said.
“Without our No. 1 defender, our defense kind of broke down,” he said. “Our defense is so used to having her that it’s pretty tough for the rest of the girls not having her in place.”
The game was 4-0 Warriors at halftime, and the goals kept coming for Philomath after halftime, as Sweet Home was mercy ruled, ending the game ten minutes earlier than normal.
Santana said that Philomath came out pressuring from the onset of the match, scoring their first goal within the first three minutes.
In addition to Baham being sidelined, “three or four” typical starters did not start in the road game, because of “things they did,” Santana said.
All of this led to the Huskies “not starting very strong,” the coach noted.
Sweet Home launched just 5 shots on goal, compared to 24 for the Warriors.
The Huskies bounced back two days later and played “really well” on senior night versus Sisters, Santana said.
Sisters scored in the game’s 23rd minute, then tacked on another goal 26 minutes into the second half to win 2-0.
Still, the result was a marked improvement from the team’s 6-0 loss at Sister’s earlier in the season.
“We had an amazing game compared to the first time we played them,” said the head coach. “Our girls did a lot of passing. Every game, our girls are playing better, especially the new players. The freshman girls are starting to figure out more how to play.”
Baham was back in action and “was a little weak, but played well,” Santana said.
Sweet Home moves to 1-9-1 on the season, and 0-8-1 in league play.