With one of their top players sidelined, a short bench, and going against one of the top teams in the state, the Mississinewa Indians gave it their all in a tough 11-0 loss to the Huntington North Vikings on Tuesday night.
Huntington North has had a solid soccer program for several years, a sentiment that head coach, Andrea Wilson, echoed after the loss.
“They are an extremely strong program,” Wilson said. “They have a lot of depth and their passing is [phenomenal.] I was happy with how hard we played. We worked to the very end regardless of the score. We were working with one sub, but we fought really hard and we never gave up.”
Alaina Webb, who has already shown to be a top offensive threat early in the season, suffered a hamstring injury last Saturday against Delta and will miss an indefinite amount of time, according to Wilson.
Even though the final score was lopsided, Wilson was pleased with the effort that the Indians gave against a top team from the opening kick to the final whistle.
“I talked to them and told them to put the fight they had tonight and the will to win in every game from here forward,” Wilson said. “We are going to be alright. We are going to win some games, and we are going to compete with teams. We just have to work as hard as we did tonight in every game.”
Webb remained sidelined on Saturday against Wabash, and her absence was felt once again, as the Indians could not muster any offense in a 5-0 loss to the Apaches.
“Webb makes such a big difference in our offense, but we didn’t want to bring her back too soon and risk her being out even longer,” Wilson said. “We just can’t catch a break as far as having a [full bench.] We just didn’t compete as well as they did, [and] we just didn’t have a lot of scoring opportunities.”
Though the Indians were outscored 16-0 in the last two matches, Wilson is pleased with the progress of her more inexperienced players, and knows that with better precision on touches and passing, the team will only continue to get better in the weeks to come.
“We had a lot of new players out there who were first year soccer players, so we are just trying to help them figure out where to be and where to send the ball,” Wilson said. “They are getting better every day, so I know it’s going to all come together.”