Free State high junior Erin Ice (7) takes a shot on goal in the first half. The Firebirds fell to Washburn Rural, 3-0, in their spring opener on Tuesday at Free State.

The way Jason Pendleton saw it Tuesday night, his Free State High girls soccer team appeared to be flying down the California freeway and the visiting Washburn Rural Junior Blues were a gang of highway patrol officers.

“Soccer’s a lot like speeding,” Pendleton said. “You get away with it most of the time, but when you get caught, you get punished.”

Tuesday, during a 3-0 loss to Washburn Rural, the Firebirds were handcuffed and locked up from the midway point of the first half through the end of the game.

“The big difference in this one was that’s a team that expects to win,” Pendleton said. “And our girls program doesn’t have that culture of winning yet. The talent is here now and we need to find a way to establish that.”

It’s not that the Firebirds didn’t have their chances. Despite trailing 2-0 at halftime — after goals by Washburn’s Braydi Fredrick (23rd minute) and Kelsie Baumgardner (33rd minute) — Free State controlled the pace of play for most of the second half. The Firebirds sustained deep pressure for the first 20 minutes of the second half and saw that pressure lead to several golden opportunities in front of the Washburn Rural net.

One opportunity put freshman Abbey Casady alone in front after fighting hard for control of the ball, but she banged a shot off the near post from eight yards out. Twenty-five minutes later, junior Anne Libeer ripped a sharp-angle shot off the far post. Somewhere in between, Libeer also nearly scored on a high-lobbing shot that just missed dropping under the crossbar but over the Washburn goalkeeper.

“We had a lot of chances to score, we just couldn’t put it in the net tonight,” FSHS senior Grace Lang said.

Added senior Hannah Carlson, when asked if the near-goals added a silver lining to the night: “No. Because they didn’t go in.”

Tuesday’s loss, which was complete when Fredrick scored her second goal with 17:27 to play, was particularly tough for the Firebirds because it came against a perennial power that they have yet to defeat. In addition, the Junior Blues opened the season without nearly a dozen regulars from last year’s Class 6A third-place team.

“I think we missed an opportunity tonight,” Pendleton said. “We lose 3-0 and two of the goals came off of our mistakes and the other was because of a mistake by the referee, which he admitted he messed up. I’m not going to say we should have won. But we could have won.”

Both Pendleton and his senior leaders said there were plenty of positives during Tuesday’s loss. The team competed hard, had fun and broke in nearly half a dozen new faces that go along with talented feet.

“We just need to keep our focus and composure and realize that we have to play hard from start to finish no matter who we’re playing,” Carlson said. “We’ve showed we can compete with anybody.”

The loss dropped Free State to 0-1 on the season. The Firebirds return to action at 6 p.m. Friday at Lansing High.