Following a shutout loss at home to the Sunrise Mountain Mustangs Tuesday night, the boys’ varsity soccer team seems to be struggling to find their identity.

“I feel like sometimes I have two different teams come out. One that really wants it and one that doesn’t,” Coach Leah Moyes said. “They just need to become more aggressive and they have to want the ball.”

The Coyotes (0-4) were blanked for the third straight game, dropping this contest 8-0. The first half ended with the Coyotes down 2-0, but the game was still within reach. This quickly got out of hand in the second half with the Mustangs scoring early and often. The scoreboard wasn’t the only place the Coyotes finished on the losing end. Their roster took a hit too as several players exited the game with injuries.

Within the first two minutes of the game, CHS lost team captain and sweeper, senior Josh Brinkman to a head injury after colliding with SMHS midfielder Cameron Miller. “Josh is one of our seniors, our starter in the defense. He really leads the defensive line so having him out is tough,” Assistant Coach Chris Uresti said. “But Kedrin [Farlee] came in and he’s a good backup for Josh.”

The team did their best to hold their own against SMHS despite losing Brinkman, but Moyes reiterated that one injury shouldn’t be devastating to their composure.

“Josh is a huge key player on the team, but it takes 11 people to play a soccer game and if we lose one, we shouldn’t be falling apart,” Moyes said. “We should be able to fix the problem and move on.”

Lack of aggression seems to be a theme so far this season and Moyes plans on changing that.

“They just have to get mad. They have to want it. Right now they’re not mad enough, they’re not frustrated enough, that’s why I made them run [after the game],” Moyes said. “They’re going to run after every game for every point that’s scored against us and maybe at some point they’ll get tired of running.”

Players also believe that they need to work on their intensity and communcation, among other things.

“We need to work on passing a lot more and as a team,” Ian Loggins said. “We need to increase our aggressiveness.”

The team is going back to the drawing board to figure out new strategies to turn the young season into a successful one.

“As a team we could’ve played better, but I feel as individuals we all did our best,” Spencer Griffin said. “We really need to work together with each other because we aren’t only a team, but we represent this school and we’re not going to get anything done if we can’t play with each other.”