By ALEX SPONSELLER The Cranston West girls soccer team dropped its opener last weekend 3-1 to defending state champion South Kingstown at Cranston West.

The Lady Falcons fell behind 2-0 early. Despite cutting into the lead on a goal from Julia Robbins in the second half to make it 2-1, South Kingstown was able to add some insurance to get the win.

West had a penalty kick opportunity late in the first half as well, but was not able to convert.

The Falcons enter this season with a young roster made up of primarily juniors and sophomores. Coach Jeremy Sherer was encouraged despite the loss and feels that the team has a bright future ahead of it.

“We are a very young team with only three seniors. I thought overall we did OK, their goals weren’t well-orchestrated, they were more sloppy messes inside the box that we couldn’t clear. The trouble with this year with COVID is that we didn’t have any preseason scrimmages, so going into this game I had a lot of questions and not a lot of answers, but now I have a better sense of what I need to hone and fine tune with them,” said Sherer. “I thought we held our own for the most part. We got attempts on goal, the girls played hard. It wasn’t the result we wanted, but there were things on the positive side to build on moving forward.”

A key piece for the Falcons this year will be freshman keeper Carmyn Acarregui, who got her first-ever high school action on Saturday in net.

“It was the first game of the season, she was a little nervous, but she made some great saves and built some confidence throughout the game as she settled in. I think she can be a real force in net for West for four years,” said Sherer.

Although West has a young roster, the Falcons will not be viewing 2020 as a rebuilding year, and expect to compete with every team it faces in the regular season and beyond.

“I think they’re absolutely ready to compete. We of course have some things to sort out, but I think we’ll be very competitive. Last year we played South Kingstown once and lost 1-0 and lost in the final 60 seconds of the game, and we had freshmen, sophomores and juniors on the field. We’ll be very competitive this year and next year,” said Sherer.

They have also taken the COVID-19 rule changes in stride.

“In a nutshell, they’re extremely excited to be back on the field, and if the consequence of that is having to wear a mask, so be it. That’s a minor modification to get back on the field and they’re all excited to be back,” Sherer said.

The Falcons dropped to 0-1 on the season and took on Wheeler Wednesday evening. The results were not available at press time.