The Sierra varsity girls’ soccer team came into Pitman High for a pre-league matchup that didn't fare well for the Pride under a cold and wet afternoon.

Sierra scored one goal in the first half and one in the second in a 2-0 shutout win over the Pride, who have now lost back-to-back games for the first time this season.

“It was a good game and Sierra is a good team, but we couldn't do what we wanted to with the changes in personnel due to injuries and kids being sick,” said Pitman head coach Cris Castro. “We got to adjust to the changes.”

Some of those changes were the time change and the drastic weather difference from the spring time to winter.

It didn't help either side that rain began to fall by the 60th minute.

“The rain and it started getting darker really early and that had an impact on the game as far as kids being able to see and it’s just different playing in those conditions,” said Castro.

It took just 16 minutes for the first goal to be scored after Sierra found the back of the net on a corner cross.

“Sierra did a great job of capitalizing on our mistakes,” said Castro. “They are a good team and that is why we scheduled them to play good competition in preseason.”

Pitman struggled to break the defensive back-line, although Isabella Shallou-Enes was able to find a crease and created multiple opportunities in the first half but none went in.

The score remained 1-0 heading into halftime.

Not much changed in the second half, with the exception of Sierra nudging in their second and final score of the game just seven minutes in.

“It was a domino effect,” said Castro of the two goals allowed. “We had some opportunities and created them. We were doing okay but unfortunately once the moves were made we were not as effective even though the girls played hard. They tried from minute one to minute 80 they play hard all the time.”

Both sides failed to score a goal once the rain began to fall with just over half an hour left in the game.

With the loss, Pitman is now 2-3 overall to begin the year. 

“We have new young players in key positions and they are learning and coming along well and in this game we had some injuries and I had to rotate the squad around and that played in the outcome,” Castro added.

Next for the Pride is the Pitman tournament with the first opponent in River City at 1:40 p.m. Friday.