Photo by Jimmy Gillispie

Baldwin High School junior Shelby Arnold, left, throws the ball out to senior James Simmons, right, during Tuesday's game.

Photo by Jimmy Gillispie

Louisburg's goalie, center, jumps to stop Baldwin High School John Grosdidier's shot but the ball sailed over his head. The goal tied the game at 1-1.

Photo by Jimmy Gillispie

Baldwin High School Levi Moore, left, and a Louisburg player battle for possession of the ball Tuesday.

A scoreless second half by the Baldwin High School soccer team led to its first home loss of the season.

On Tuesday, the Bulldogs (2-2) were defeated 4-2 by Louisburg. The loss was the first at home for Baldwin after winning its first two home contests.

"We had a couple bad touches in the second half that hurt us," junior Shelby Arnold said. "We played well, but they had some better touches and we made a couple of mistakes. We will definitely learn from this game and get better throughout the rest of the year."

The teams were tied 2-2 at halftime and the Bulldogs had a bit of momentum with a late goal to knot the contest up at half. However, the Wildcats came out in the second half with more energy and shots on goal.

A pair of those found the back of the net as Baldwin was unable to match its Frontier League opponent.

"They had four or five players with better skills than anybody on our team," coach Matt McCune said. "I thought we played a lot better as a team, especially in the first half. We just kind of wore out and had some chances on the offensive end. It's a long season and I thought we were just as good as they were."

Senior Colin Busby scored the Bulldogs' second goal a couple of minutes before halftime. He shot a dead ball kick from the middle of the Wildcats' side of the field. The ball sailed over the defenders and goalie's head and into the net.

Baldwin's other goal came from junior John Grosdidier. He also scored on a long shot much earlier in the half.

"Yeah, I was surprised those went in," McCune said. "At halftime, we talked about needing to shoot, shoot, shoot. We didn't get a lot of shots in the second half."

Louisburg scored first in the game during the first 10 minutes. The Wildcats also answered Grosdidier's goal with one of their own about a minute later.

Arnold said the Bulldogs tried to rebound from those goals by playing physical soccer like the Wildcats.

"We had to be just as physical as they were," Arnold said. "We had to push just as much as they were and run to the ball harder.

"We need to work on taking more shots," he said. "We had two nice shots that we scored on, but we didn't take enough."

Despite the loss, McCune did see his team improve from its last contest on Sept. 9.

"Our goal is to get better with every game," McCune said. "Even though we lost 4-2, this probably was our best game. We had three mental lapses that gave up goals. Those are easy errors to fix. I think we've gotten better with each game."

Baldwin's game at Ottawa scheduled for last Thursday has been rescheduled for the morning of Sept. 27. The Bulldogs next play host to Gardner-Edgerton at 4 p.m. today. The Trailblazers also lost to Louisburg this year, 3-1.

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