By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

A well-played second half could not make up for a fairly lethargic first half that led to a 3-0 loss in a girls soccer game against the Thomas Jefferson Raiders that opened up South Puget Sound League North Division action at Federal Way Memorial Thursday.

The Raiders opened the SPSL North season with a 1-0 record while the Rams dropped to 0-1 and 1-1-1 overall, having tied Rogers, 0-0, and beat West Seattle, 1-0, in non-league games prior to this game kicking off the regular season.

But this first regular season game against the Raiders is the important one as winning these type league games is what determines making the playoffs, or not, when November arrives.

"It was a slow start," said Rams head coach Michelle Mohn. "We couldn't connect any passes together, a little chaotic. I don't have much else to say about the first half. We were not energetic, no urgency."

The Raiders controlled the game from the beginning, keeping the ball on the Rams' half of the field for the majority of the first half, not to mention keeping possession of the ball a lot of the time.

The first Raiders goal came 10 minutes into the game, and it was a goal that, maybe, could have been stopped from going in with a little more hustle and energy expelled.

So, on the play that resulted in momentum for the Raiders, the goal came off a corner kick. The ball was booted high, arcing and over the Rams and Raiders players waiting for it in the middle of the field. The ball was then rolling out toward the endline. It would have rolled out over the goal line for a goal kick if no one hustled after the ball. But a Raider player did hustle after it. She did get it, and she did pass it back to a teammate a few yards back for support, just outside the six-yard box. That made for an easy far-post shot that was a goal to make it 1-0 Raiders.

Then came goals, 15 minutes later, on a crossed ball hit in to make it 2-0 and another crossed ball from the right wing area into the middle for another player to run onto it and hit it home to make it 3-0,with a little less than 10 minutes left in the first half.

That was the first half scoring, and the Rams then walked from the field to the locker room at halftime.

Mohn, then, said some things to her players that made a difference. Must have. The Raiders did not control the ball 80 percent of the second half, like they did the first. It was more like 50-50 time of possession, with the ball played in the middle of the field a lot of the half.

"I said that we needed to clean up our first touches, communicate, close on the ball, and get positioning on and off the ball."
They responded.

"We kept them, 0-0, in the second half," said Mohn
Mohn's halftime talk was followed up with technical changes, too.
"Once we stepped up the offense a little, that helped, too, in the second half," said Mohn. "We changed formation, from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3."

A 4-4-2 is a lineup with four defenders, four midfielders and two forwards while a 4-3-3 is four defenders, three midfielders and three forwards. The first style of attack is more defensive oriented while the latter, which the Rams played the second half, allows more opportunity for midfielders, and defenders, to push the ball forward to more forwards up front.

Junior center midfielder Kristina Flanagan played a good game, especially the second half, bringing the ball forward for nice one-touches to teammates and dribbling upfield. She explained the second half from the first half.

"We were able to keep the ball in the midfield more and move people to the attack," said Flanagan.

The second half clearly showed this Rams team won't quit and, three goals down, they will play strong to prove to themselves, and others, that they will only improve as this young season moves along.

What's more, Mohn explained that an integral part of the team, the team captains, were out of this game and should return shortly.

"We are looking forward to our captains coming back," said Mohn. "One is out with a stress fracture and the other got a concussion."

Lizzy Borden and Kennedy Bryant are these two senior captains out now for the Rams. So, that's a big deal, losing players of that stature on this team.

"They provide leadership on the field, they provide the voice that was absent today," said Mohn.

There was not much voice in the first half, unless one counts Mohn, who was trying to get her players to spread out more on the field and give choices for players to pass to, dribbling into the clear, going toward the opponent's goal.

"Give her an option," said Mohn, talking out onto the field as players like Flanagan dribbled the ball and were having a hard time getting the ball off to a teammate before a Raider closed in. "Give her an option forward."

But in the second half the Rams played much more coherent and even though the Raiders outshot them in the second half there was much improvement.

Plus, the best chance of scoring in the second half was by the Rams, not the Raiders, as junior left fullback Emily Rhodes sent a high lob some 30 yards into the six-yard box where junior Michelle Holmes one-touched it just wide of the near post with 15 minutes left.

Several good ball plays and passing work by the Rams, too, in the second half like Samantha Norberg, Gillian Larsen and Holmes teaming for passing attacks on the right side, with Flanagan helping that attack, too. Destiny Haag and others, like Rhode, were very strong defending in this game in the second half, to note, also.

So, yeah, these Rams played a tale of two completely different halves, and were never doubting themselves though down so much after the game was all but over after the first half.

Led by Flanagan, the Rams were, at least, trying to give Mohn the effort she exhorted them in the halftime locker room to show forth in the second half, winning 50-50 balls, seeing the ball to space and feet as situation dictated.

"C'mon, Rams, nine minutes to go," said Flanagan, with the game completely out of reach.

And Flanagan knows her team will be playing this same Raiders team on their own turf at Highline Memorial a little later on this season when these two teams meet a second time on Oct. 16.

"We will take what we learned today and fix it in practice," said Flanagan. "We are going to work on playing more as a team and try to make ourselves better individually as well."

So this game's over, time to remember the good, dispose of the bad and move forward, because there is a whole lot of soccer left to be played and this Rams team of young ladies showed that they have heart and willingness to work harder as their coach wants them to do. And that kind of doing is a lot of of what winning is all about, maybe, more than anything else.

"I thought we played much better soccer in the second half," said Mohn.
The Rams next play Tuesday at 7 p.m. against Federal Way at Highline Memorial.