By Audrey Dodgen/Staff Writer

The El Reno High School soccer teams dropped games to Elk City and Carl Albert in their first two games of the season.

The girls squad lost Friday 4-0 in their first home game to the Carl Albert Titans.

The Indians attempted only one shot on goal in the match. The Titans took 20 shots on goal.

El Reno goalkeepers Sarah Apple and Taylor Martin combined for 16 saves in the contest.

Head coach Richard Nix said his squad has a number of young players who are still learning to play the game.

“We have a lot of young girls. We have two freshmen in the back who are really good athletes and are starting to understand the game, but we don’t have a lot of experience,” he said.

“Misti Williams is also back there, and though she is a senior, this is her first year. This Carl Albert team has been playing together for a long time.”

The Indians dropped their first game of the season, a road outing against Elk City, 3-0.

Carl Albert 4, El Reno 1

Ryan Hughey scored El Reno’s only goal of the night with 32:30 left to play in the second half of the boys’ game Friday.

Carl Albert took 22 shots on goal, while El Reno took 21.

Carl Albert’s goalkeeper picked up 13 saves. El Reno’s goalkeepers earned nine.

“We did a better job on defense in this game than we did against Elk City. Offensively, though, we did not play like we did against Elk City,” Nix said.

“We didn’t distribute the ball well. We basically played defense all game, then they scored and it was like a panic.”

Carl Albert’s first score came on a flubbed play by the Indians.

The Titans threw the ball in and it sailed into the goal.

“All we had to do was leave it alone and let it go by. If we hadn’t touched it, it wouldn’t have counted. But, we touched it and it did,” he said.

Nix said his team found plenty of shots to take, but many were poor choices.

“We were getting shots, they just weren’t good ones,” he said.

“We were forcing it all night and we couldn’t get it to go in the net.”