Poplar Bluff started the season 2-1 and has gone 2-13-1 since. The young Mules roster is now on a four-game losing streak, its longest of the season, and is consistently suffering from the same problems.
Poplar Bluff struggled to connect passes all night and spent much of the game on defense, eventually losing to Parkview 3-1 on Thursday at Mules Stadium.
The Mules finished with two shots on goal, including their lone goal, and six shots overall. Parkview, meanwhile, had nine shots on goal and 14 total shots in what was another busy night for Poplar Bluff keeper Justin Moses.
"It is just tough when you can't connect more than one or two passes. We can't build up any type of possession, we turn the ball over too much and it causes us to play defense. It's been the last few games," Poplar Bluff coach Rusty Crafton said. "It is all direct, straight up the middle, we don't use the width of the field, and we just kick the ball to them. Nine times out of 10 we are going to be playing defense all the time."
Parkview scored early and built a 3-0 lead off a penalty kick and a whipping shot from distance that landed just inside the far post.
Poplar Bluff, which started three freshmen, thought it scored with 15 minutes left in the second half, but was ruled offside, and then eventually scored its lone goal with 42 seconds left in the game.
"We've got young players out there, inexperienced players who haven't played at the varsity level. It is just a completely different experience from junior high soccer, straight up to varsity soccer," Crafton said. "It is a lot faster pace, but they are getting better and it's good they are getting this experience now leading up to next year."
The Mules fell behind early after Parkview's Henry Smith got possession near midfield, dribbled around four players and drilled a shot off the near post that bounced perfectly to Elisha Valentine, who tapped it in for the goal 11 minutes into the game.
Despite playing defense most of the time, the Mules kept the lead at 1-0 until halftime.
"We need to step up a little bit faster. I think there is too much of a gap between the midfield line and the defensive line. I thought the defense played well the first half. Communication needs to get better. A lot of things need to get better across the board," Crafton said.
Parkview nearly added a second goal just before halftime, but Jakob Nation missed his open shot from 10 yards wide.
In the second half, Valentine dribbled into the box and took a hard foul when the Mules doubled him. Freshman Tyler Duchscherer tucked the penalty kick inside the right post after Moses dove the wrong way.
With 17 minutes left, the Vikings put together a give-and-go and Collin Miller drilled a left-footed shot from the left side of the box that whipped inside to outside away from Moses and barely inside the far post.
A couple minutes later, a Mules cross got loose in the box and Gage Rowland scored, but the Mules were called offside.
In the final minute, a long ball cross by the Mules found Alex Ketcherside in the box, who poked it home with 42 seconds left in the game for a goal.
Despite giving up two goals in the second half compared to one in the first half, the Mules played on Parkview's end a little more often in the second half.
"We just came out with energy. We came out slow from the start and it kind of hurts us. Just not really aggressive," Crafton said. "We need to be aggressive and win the 50/50 balls and challenge them. It seemed like they were winning every 50/50 ball, and we weren't challenging them in the air of challenging anything. Hats off to them, they played better than us tonight."