Lakewood soccer found a weak spot in the Sultan goal and exploited it on their way to a 7-1 win Sept. 30 to kick off homecoming week.

Sophomore Alisha Scott led the Cougar offense with four goals.

Senior Anna Work scored first for Lakewood, causing the celebratory sirens to erupt in the seventh minute as the Cougar forwards drew Sultan’s goaltender out of the net and giving Work the easy goal. Scott’s first of four came five minutes later as she got behind the hapless keeper. The girls traded goals again for Lakewood’s third and fourth, with junior Erin Dierckx scoring a fifth to go with her two assists before halftime against a fresh keeper.

The game was a nice morale booster for a young team that is still working on employing skills learned in practice as they take the field for 80 minutes of soccer.

The girls didn’t fare as well against Cedarcrest later in the week, falling 4-1.

“We played good for about 60 minutes and fell apart for the rest of it,” said coach Vaughn Vandelac, attributing the team’s struggles to youth. He added that the team played better as the week went on, “But there’s a few things we fell short on and ultimately they cost us.”

The girls went 2-5 through the first half of their conference schedule. As the teams meet in the rematch second half, Lakewood draws meetings against South Whidbey and Granite Falls in their first three games, two teams that are just ahead of the Cougars in league standings.

Right now, Vandelac said he sees a strengthening the team dynamic as a current goal.

“We’re trying to get them to rely on each other more,” he said, adding, “It’s a work in progress.”