West Liberty High School girls soccer coach Manuel Machado can’t say he was happy about his team’s performance at Bellevue Marquette Catholic Friday.
After junior Sailor Hall scored the opening goal of the game for the Comets with six minutes remaining in the first half off an assist from Nellie Stagg, the West Liberty team gave up three second half goals to take a 3-1 loss, their third of the young season.
Marquette scored on a penalty kick to tie the score with just 90 seconds gone in the second half before taking the lead with about 25 minutes left in the game and then putting it away with a goal at about eight minutes remaining.
Machado said he expected more from his team, saying they were better than Marquette, who outplayed the Comets, in particularly in the second half.
“We lost focus,” said the coach, pointing out they had a solid first half of play before getting “dominated” the rest of the game. The coach said he was confident his team would regain composure moving forward.
He did praise the play of the Hall sisters, noting Finley did a great job of contolling the defensive end of the field while Sailor was always an offensive threat to the Bellevue squad.
The team hosts Columbus on Thursday in a 5 p.m. matchup at Memorial Field before traveling to Mediapolis High School in Northfield for a 5 p.m. match on Thursday, May 6.