A flurry of first half goals in an eight minute span spoiled the Powell Panther girls’ soccer home opener, as the rival Cody Fillies scored four first half goals before an even second half saw the contest finish 6-2 in favor of the visitors on Tuesday night.

CODY 6, POWELL 2

Early on both teams competed and found space, with the Fillies (3-0 overall, 2-0 3A West) claiming the better of the chances early against the Panthers (3-3 overall, 1-1 3A West).

After a deadlock over the first 22 minutes, Cody found the opener after a strong shot from the left wing found its way into the net to make it 1-0.

That goal opened the floodgates for the visitors.

Two more goals followed over the next three minutes, with turnovers turning into quick opportunities for the visitors and sneaking into the back of the net.

Cody finished off the scoring outburst with 10 minutes left in the half, with a long shot sneaking in at the near post and making it 4-0.

“The one thing that I would really like us to improve on going into the next games is to be diligent in marking individuals and not just occupying space,” coach Danny Agee said. “We did drop back when we needed to but we were slow to step up and we lost our shape in the middle. It is not a major issue but will require us to be more accountable as individual defenders.”

Powell’s best opportunity came with just over five minutes left when Ava Gilliatt found herself in a one-on-one with the keeper, but a save kept Powell shut out heading into the half.

Powell had strong opportunities early in the second half, but key saves by the Fillies keeper kept Powell scoreless.

Ivy Agee finally got the breakthrough with 25 minutes left in the half, weaving her way through the defense and slotting it home to give Powell life.

She continued her quick flurry, after a corner kick was bobbled by the keeper and spilled over the line to make it 4-2 with 22:30 left.

“It was good to at least put a couple goals away,” coach Agee said. “I feel like we are struggling with our confidence to score goals that with our actual ability to do so … We need to find a way to move past a missed opportunity and push to work harder to regain possession. The ladies are capable of so much and we simply need to start trusting in that again.”

Powell fought back, but Cody regained control and a shot found its way over the Powell keeper with 13:30 left to extend the lead back to 5-2.

Another quickly followed a minute later, as another long shot found its way into the top of the net and Cody secured a 6-2 victory.

LONG ROAD TRIP

Powell was originally scheduled to play at home this weekend, but the schedule has been flipped and the team will instead head southwest to take on Mountain View and Lyman this weekend.

That will start against the Buffalos (1-2 overall, 1-2 3A West) at 3 p.m. on Friday.

Powell will then turn around and take on the Eagles (2-2 overall, 1-0 3A West) at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

“I think we are going to focus on shortening the gap between the forwards and the defensive line and try to be more compact in our attack,” coach Agee said. “This will provide more options to combine with and hopefully we can find the back of the net in the same way we were in the beginning of the year.”