Seabury Academy’s soccer squad didn’t earn its first victory of the season Tuesday, but the Seahawks nearly won without even having to play.

Their opponent, Center Place, showed up 30 minutes late because its bus got lost during the drive from Independence, Mo., to the Youth Sports Inc. fields.

The game began following a 20-minute warm-up period, and Center Place showed no signs of dead legs following the long bus trip. Two early goals and another late strike doomed the Seahawks, 3-0.

“We’d gotten into a practice mode, where we weren’t ready for a game anymore,” Seabury defender Justin Esau said. “We let up too much in the beginning and came out kind of timid.

“They got a quick goal and that brought our morale down, but then they got another one and we fired back up.”

Center Place took the lead in the second minute when Tyler Hamann lofted a corner kick from the left side that Noe Gomez headed past Seabury goalkeeper Paul Bireta.

Gomez tallied an assist six minutes later when he tapped a short pass between two Seahawks that Matthew Emerick buried from 10 yards out. Center Place added its final goal in the 54th minute when Justin Kelley threaded the Seabury defense and scored unassisted.

“Everybody got into the position that they needed to,” Seabury coach Shawn Sherlock said. “It’s just one guy wasn’t in front of him. That’s one of the things we’ve been working on.”

Sherlock wasn’t disappointed with the final score because he said his first-year program made progress –sandwiched between the last two goals was 46 minutes of shutout soccer.

Seabury Academy's Alan Park, right, pushes the ball upfield. The Seahawks lost, 3-0, Tuesday at the Youth Sports Inc. fields.

Steven King was a vocal leader keeping the defense organized; Alan Park placed three shots on goal and ran at top speed in his first game back from a stress fracture; Bireta grabbed 13 saves; and Yoo Sung’s midfield play created a handful of offensive opportunities.

“At the beginning of the year we weren’t marking up as well, we weren’t passing, we weren’t doing all the little stuff that’s really bringing this team together,” Sherlock said. “Yeah, the score was 3-0, but we had our chances.”