Westview’s first game of the season ended with a 2-0 loss for the Wolverines against Eastlake, Dec. 9. They conceded an early goal 10 minutes into the game and a later-game goal 60 minutes in that led to their defeat.

Even though they were down a goal early, center back Miley Shaver (12) said that the players stayed positive in the second half.

“We did well in coming out a lot stronger in the second half,” Shaver said. “Even though we were losing, we still had a really good mentality. We still knew that we were in the game and could still play well. I think that’s such an important thing, being able to do that instead of just giving up. We pushed through to the very end.”

 According to captain and center midfielder Lily Wallace’s (12), there wasn’t much time to practice since this was the first game of the year and the club soccer season bled into the start of the high school season. Despite their loss, she said that the team performed as well as they could in the game.

“Every year, the first game is always kind of rough,” Wallace said. “We’re still working on connecting as a team, especially since we get new players every year. For our first game, I think we did the best we could given those circumstances. We did really well in communicating. We remained calm even though we were down, which is something that’s really important, because you have to keep your composure in order to try to get another goal.”

In their practices leading up to the game, center midfielder Reagan Jones (12) said that the team had practiced sliding, where the team moves as a group instead of individually on the field.

“We’ve mainly been working on our formation and sliding,” Jones said. “Everyone moving together towards whatever is happening and following each other is simple, but complex at the same time. Everyone needs to know where they slide in their position. I think that was really beneficial for that first game. We were successful in sliding since we’ve been working on that specifically.”

While that tactic had been run through in practices, during the match, captain and goalkeeper London Davis (12) said the team noticed Eastlake’s pattern of moving through the middle, which Westview was able to adapt to mid-game.

“Eastlake tried to go through the middle a lot,” Davis said. “We kept the defensive line compact, and we kept Eastlake wide to win the ball. Offensively, the way we played changed throughout the game. We changed our formation going into the second half and we put players up higher because we knew that we were down a goal, so we wanted to put more pressure on them in their own half so we could try to win the ball and score in the second half. We were more successful at putting pressure on them and winning the ball.”

Still, Wallace said that the team struggled in its passing.

“The main issue was that we couldn’t connect passes well in the other team’s half of the field,” she said. “So, we didn’t get a lot of shots on the goal.”

However, Shaver said that the team’s midfielders played especially well.

“Our center midfielders were doing a really good job adapting, because going into the game our coaches wanted them to play differently compared to how they’re used to,” she said. “When the other team had the ball, they were stepping to defend people they usually don’t defend. Our offensive midfielder dropped off more, and our defensive midfielder had to press the other team’s winger if the ball went to that side. It depends on what formation we play, but most of the time our midfielders are covering the middle and their general space rather than having to cover out wide. I think they did a really good job with that, and they were making it work. Then in the second half, when we had four people in the middle, they did a really good job trying to get the ball forward and looking for the outside passes.”

Regardless of the loss, Jones said she has faith that the team will do well going forward.

“The overall struggle this year is definitely that we’ve lost a lot of great players, and we’ve gained some players, but it’s just something that’s going to take time,” she said. “I have no doubt that things are going to get better and that our team will improve greatly.”