Lady Wolves come up short

The Green River High School girls soccer team faced a disappointing loss last Thursday, coming up short against Jackson, who beat them 4-1.

“Honestly we were in the game until probably about 10 minutes left,” Coach Matthew Robles said.

The Lady Wolves started the game behind, with Jackson scoring two goals early on. Green River fought back, however, and scored with about 30 minutes left in the game. Unfortunately trying to catch back up ended up leading to mistakes.

“We were pressing too hard to get the tying goal and gave up a couple late goals to make it four to one,” Robles explained, noting the final score doesn’t show how close the game was, but the final score is also what it ultimately comes down to.

Although the team members were upset about losing the first home game of the season, they recognized the importance of how close the game ultimately was.

“They were proud of themselves for the fact that we were in that game for as long as we were,” Robles said.

As their coach, Robles was also proud of the team’s efforts.

“We played very well,” he said. “We could have done better. Obviously we’re still working out some things going forward and playing some more offensive-styled, attacking soccer. But we’re getting there. It’s going to be a process but we’ll get there.”

This weekend the team will have a break without competition, allowing them to continue working on their strategy and finding ways to improve. Robles said the team is working on positioning and connecting passes from back players to forward players, since that has been one place where the team has lost the ball during games. The team will also continue working on shooting, since “you can’t score unless you shoot,” according to Robles.

Another area he wants to focus on is mental toughness and playing well under pressure. Robles hopes the team can also improve at closing out games, since the game against Jackson was the second game this season the Lady Wolves have lost at the end after being close.

“We just at that point where we gotta figure out how to push through that last 20 minutes and try to find the win instead of allowing the other team to beat us in those moments,” Robles said.