The Free State High soccer team’s 5-1 loss to Olathe North on Thursday left Firebirds coach Jason Pendleton with more questions than answers.

“Honestly, I have no idea how good Olathe North is,” he said. “Because I don’t know that we were much of a contest for them today.”

The ill-prepared Firebirds, now 7-4-2, fell behind early, never gave much of a fight and suffered quite a beating at the hands of the Eagles.

Olathe North scored just three minutes into the game, added two more goals in the first half and two more in the second half.

It was never close.

“The bottom line for us is, we didn’t put forth a decent enough effort to compete with them today,” Pendleton said. “That starts with me.”

After Eagle goals by Rex Wallace and Jason Stahl, Free State’s Joel Angelone finally got the Firebirds on the board. Angelone took a free kick from 25 yards out that deflected off an Olathe North defender and trickled into the net. It was Angelone’s 19th goal of the season, and for a time revived Free State.

“It was a quality goal,” Pendleton said. “It got us back in the game briefly.”

Free State High's Drew Becker, right, and Olathe North's Greg May eyed the ball during Thursday's match at Free State. The Eagles beat the Firebirds, 5-1.

Somehow, Free State seemingly got no momentum from Angelone’s ninth goal in four games. Just a minute before halftime, North’s Phil Breidenbach scored on a beautiful header off a corner kick by Wallace, giving the Eagles a 3-1 advantage.

Olathe North got two Corey Bailey goals late in the second half to seal the Sunflower League victory.

“It was an overall poor effort,” Pendleton said. “Everybody could’ve played and should’ve played better than they did today.”

Free State will look to snap their two-game losing streak next Tuesday at Olathe South. They return home to play Shawnee Mission North next Thursday.

“We’ll go back to the drawing board,” Pendleton said, “and see if we can get some sort of combination of players that can work hard for 80 minutes.”

Olathe North 5, Free State 1

Free State's Ben Marshall, back, goes up against Olathe North's Josh Klusman on Thursday.

Olathe North 3 2 5

Free State 1 0 1

First Half

ON: Rex Wallace (Josh Klusman) 2:43.

ON: Jason Stahl (unassisted) 14:00.

FS: Joel Angelone (unassisted) 18:10.

ON: Phil Breidenbach (Rex Wallace) 38:57.

Second Half

ON: Corey Bailey (Jake Parrott) 52:53.

ON: Corey Bailey (unassisted) 72:43.