Members of the Fountain Hills High School girls soccer team have a long road ahead of them. The season started last week, and the new players had a wake-up call in their loss to American Leadership Academy – Gilbert North.

“It’s more like, welcome to soccer,” head coach Nick Goodman said. “Whether you like it or not, this is going to be what it’s like for the rest of the season. A lot of them said ‘this is harder than I thought, there’s a lot more running than I expected.’”

The girls were not set up for success in their opening match. The Falcons are half veteran and half new recruits, and they played a tough team. The veterans wanted to win since ALA- Gilbert North was the last team to knock them out of the playoffs, but it did not work out for the Falcons.

“This one was probably our hardest game, so I’m just glad this one is over,” senior Kambria Vanorden said. “All the games after this I’m looking forward to. I think we have a good chance if we practice more.”

Vanorden is the only senior on the team and the captain of the Falcons. She plays midfield and is one of the most vocal Falcons on the field. According to Goodman, Vanorden was one of the few girls that was conditioned enough to play the whole time.

“There were two, maybe three girls that ran the entire time,” Goodman said. “The rest of them, they wiped out after 15-20 minutes. They were too tired. You could see a definite change in their ability because they had no more endurance to keep running back and forth. There was a lot of walking and standing around.”

The Eagles missed their first three shot attempts, but then scored three in a row on the Falcons. The Falcons were down 4-0 at halftime and could not pressure the Eagles’ goal at all. The second half was very similar, and the Eagles scored twice to win 6-0.

Sophomore Jeneya Boone had nine saves as goalkeeper, but the Falcons didn’t give her a lot of help on either end of the field. The Falcons could not muster a single offensive shot on goal, and the pressure was almost always on the Falcons’ side of the field.

“I think we should practice more on shooting and work specific goalie work,” Vanorden said. “That’s what we did last year, and it really helped [Boone]. Even techniques of sliding and certain jumps I feel can really help her.”

Both Goodman and Vanorden called the first game an eye-opening experience. Because of the team’s lack of depth, the Falcons had not played 11 on 11 in practice. Now that the new players have experienced a full game against a good team, Goodman said they will have different expectations.

“I think we can do better, because the expectations were at a certain level, especially for the new girls,” Goodman said. “Going forward, our priority in practices is going to be towards what they felt today. I know they don’t ever want to feel that again, because they felt defeated.”

Goodman wants his team to have a different mindset toward conditioning moving forward in practice. The Falcons didn’t have much time to practice before their match this Monday at Benjamin Franklin. The match occurred on Dec. 6, after publishing time, but the Falcons have a full week before their next game. On Monday, Dec. 13, the Falcons will host Gilbert Christian at 4p.m. for the last match before January 2022.