After an early goal made by Bloomington Jefferson left the team struggling to find its poise, head coach Benjy Kent said it forced the team to rethink positioning. With the abrupt challenge, there was a lack of sustained focus throughout the game. 

“We were focusing on working on three things: communication, passing and more of a defensive start,” Kent said. “(Getting scored on right away) made us have to come out of that situation and play more offensively. We never really caught up to them.”

According to junior captain Sophia Romero, the team could improve on confidence, chemistry and thinking as a team.

“We’re still trying to get into the motions of really playing as a team, and seeing this as less of an individual sport and more of an altogether thing,” Romero said. “To play this game together, we just have to make sure that we’re moving up as a unit.”

Junior Ryan Rasmussen said the team’s first game against Bloomington Jefferson helped its morale, but its overconfidence negatively affected their playing.

“We were pretty even, we just let up some bad opportunities and just got the excitement,” Rasmussen said. “I just feel like since we won, we came in overly confident.”

Romero said the key to the next game is to take more accurate shots. As a result, it will lead to a more relaxing game for the girls.

“We definitely took a lot more opportunities than we did our first game. Eventually, once those get on frame, we’ll be able to pull out the win,” Romero said.

According to Kent, Bloomington Jefferson was a difficult opponent for the girls. However, he sees room for improvement as it is a youthful team.

“We’re a young team. We have some good individuals, but we have a lot of kids who haven’t played much high school soccer. For us, they were a tough opponent,” Kent said.

The girls’ next game is 5 p.m. Sept. 24 at Benilde-St. Margaret’s School against Benilde-St. Margaret.