Midway through the second half, Megan Rousch fell to the ground after going for a 50-50 ball. She turned her head to the right to find the ball, and she unfortunately found it zooming toward her face.

The ball cracked Rousch right in the nose, but she didn’t fall back down. She quickly collected herself and jumped right back into the action trying to take the ball away from her opponent.

Although the 12U KVSA Club Select team lost 5-0 to the LASC Patriots on Saturday at Youth Sports Inc., they didn’t stop trying.

“I was most proud of the fact that they didn’t give up through the entire game,” Club Select head coach Gretchen Yencic said.

Regan Kahler, Club Select defender, played outstanding defense from the opening whistle to final whistle. Kahler routinely shut down attacks and tried to set up counterattacks for Club Select.

The counterattacks failed because the Club Select offense couldn’t match the speed of the Patriots defense.

Patriots forward, Ali Rincon, carried the offensive load during the first half of the soccer game. Rincon got the Patriots on the board within the first five minutes off a cross from the left side of the field.

After the first goal, Rincon and the Patriots became over-anxious, and the referee whistled the team for being offsides. The Patriots made offensive adjustments to combat the offsides calls and continued to move the ball well.

The adjustments made immediate dividends as Rincon received a pass 5 yards outside the left corner of the 18-yard box. Rincon turned, with no defenders at her back, and fired a laser beam toward the goal. The toe-poke sailed passed the keeper into the right side of the net for Rincon’s second goal of the match.

Club Select defender Kara Poulsen clears the ball from the goal Saturday at Youth Sports Inc.

Club Select had no answer for the speed and strength of the LASC Patriots.

Yencic said her team needed to make adjustments for the next game to minimize the effects of a faster team.

“We need to start spreading the field more and talking amongst ourselves on the field,” Yencic said.

Yencic may look for leadership from her defensive line. Club Select defenders Kahler, Erica Lignell and Kara Poulsen played good games but need to work on communication to help everyone play better as a team.