Salida soccer falls 3-1 to Lady Lions after good first half

Following a solid first half, the Salida High School girls’ soccer team fell to the visiting Lady Lions of Colorado Springs Christian School April 22.

In the past, CSCS has typically provided a challenge, coach Heidi Slaymaker said. “We’ve usually battled hard and had a good first half (against CSCS). We just have to figure out the first part of the second half.” Additionally, the team came into the game with a lot of injuries, she said.

At 39 minutes, junior Izzy Hughes passed to senior Grace McFarland to put one in for the Lady Spartans. “It was a teamwork goal,” McFarland said. “Everybody played really hard.”

The Lady Lions got a free kick at 11 minutes to half, tying Salida at halftime.

Senior Lulu Zettler said, “I’m really proud of everyone for keeping going. … In the back everybody worked really hard to get those tackles.”

About 10 minutes after coming out of halftime, CSCS scored again.

The Lions scored one more time in the last seven minutes.

Hughes said, “We defended our a**es off,” especially considering they were low on numbers.

“We played fast and we kept our heads up.”

McFarland said, “We continued to keep battling.” Going forward, she said, “we need to possess higher.”

Slaymaker said, “We battled hard and defended well.” As for improvements, “we’re missing that last connecting pass in transition. If we can win that ball we can create chances,” she said. “I thought when we did connect though, we looked dangerous. We show that we are in all of these games.”

McFarland had a really great game, Slaymaker said. “She worked really hard to connect that next piece.”

Hughes did well defensively with acrosses, and Zettler was “stellar” on center back, she said. “We need to believe in ourselves going forward.”

Salida is currently 6-5-1. The team played Thursday away against Woodland Park after presstime. They will play the 3-6-2 James Irwin Charter School Lady Jaguars at 4:30 p.m. April 30 at home.