The West Plains boys soccer team fell 4-1 to Trinity Academy Home School Association on Saturday.
Hudson Cox scored the lone goal for the Zizzers on a penalty kick. Trinity Academy also capitalized on an early penalty kick and carried a 2-0 lead into halftime.
"We didn't play to our potential," West Plains head coach Jimmy Miller said. "We came out sluggish and flat."
Miller noted the Zizzers were outplayed and will need to learn from the loss heading into the rest of the week's matches.
"We were unable to find any consistent rhythm and didn't possess well throughout the game," Miller said, "which led to us playing reactively and playing too much kickball."
Prior to the weekend, West Plains dropped a hard-fought 1-0 overtime decision to the Branson Pirates on Oct. 6 at Zizzer Stadium.
After a scoreless 80 minutes of regulation, Branson found the back of the net in the first overtime, hitting a shot Miller noted was in an area no goalkeeper could save. The physical match came on the heels of a 3-0 road win over Rolla the night before.
"We got home at midnight from a big 3-0 win in Rolla, for the first win at Rolla since 2006," Miller said, "and I thought all things considered, our guys played phenomenal and had a ton of energy, effort and showed some resilience and heart to battle through fatigue, with several starters playing the full 80 minutes plus overtime."
Miller praised the team for setting a solid pace from the opening whistle and maintaining intensity throughout the contest.
"Branson is a very skilled and technical 11-win team, and one of the better teams in the area in my opinion," Miller said. "We lost the game, but did not get out-played or out-worked, and I am beyond proud of the effort and resilience the guys displayed in the game."
