WEST ALEXANDRIA — Tri-County North’s girls’ soccer team took to the road on Tuesday, Sept. 5 for a non-league contest against the Greenon Lady Knights and suffered its first defeat of the season, 4-1.

Early on, both teams were moving the ball up and down the field but neither team could connect on that final pass to produce a goal.

That all changed around the 15 minute mark as an unmarked Greenon player found a bouncing ball at her feet and tapped it in for the first goal of the game.

North looked to be up to the challenge when minutes later Hailey Thies shook loose from her Grennon defender, sidestepped the goalie and rolled one into the far corner of the goal for the equalizer.

Grennon went back on top just moments later North left a girl unmarked and she made them pay for it and Greenon took a 2-1 lead to the half.

North had the ball to start the second half, but Greenon’s physical play and ball possession was too much for North.

Grennon slipped one in early into the second half and then another late in the game with just a few minutes left for a 4-1 victory.

“We were not playing team ball tonight, our passes were on the sloppy side, we didn’t win many 50/50 balls, and we left way too many girls unmarked below the eighteen to be successful,” North coach Ted Theis said. “Greenon played well. I’m not going to take anything away from them, they came to play we just didn’t meet their challenge”

North bounced back with a 9-0 win over Twin Valley South two days later. North led 2-0 at the half, but exploded for seven second half goals to secure the win.