From "The Paper of Montgomery County"

"We couldn't get the ball up like we had in the past," Hatcher said. "It's going to take some time work that out . . . We'll work on the offense. We don't play again until next Thursday and we have three days to regroup and see what happens."

For the second-straight year, Southmont (0-2, 0-1 SAC) lost its opening conference game to Western Boone.

The Stars defeated the Mounties 2-0 last year but did net revenge defeating them in the Southmont Invitational.

Hatcher has spent the team's opening week patching up an injury riddled defense and offense.

Her daughter and sophomore midfielder, Emma Hatcher, suffered a severely sprained left ankle in Tuesday night's 4-2 season-opening loss to Cascade and is out the next two weeks, while junior defenseman Megan Arnold played the second half and is recovering from an injury.

With Hatcher out, Shelby Phillips moved from her regular forward position to center-midfielder.

Phillips had only played the center-midfielder position once before against McCutcheon last year and acknowledged she's learning as she goes.

"The main difference is speed," she said. "I still shift. But I had to shift to both sides. It's pretty intense. I love it. I love running . . . (But) I've got to step it up."

Southmont only recorded three shots on goal and 10 shots total, with eight of those 10 coming in the first half. Western Boone had 11 shots on goal and took 22 shots overall.

Senior co-captain Morgan Fouty said Phillips played pretty well in only her second game as a midfielder.

But she also acknowledged they can't let the injuries become excuses.

"We have other players who have to step up," Fouty said. "If we really want to win, we can win."

Southmont next plays next Thursday at 5 p.m. at North Putnam.