"Unfortunately we didn't win, but we gave good effort," head coach Kyle Morgan said. "We had our opportunities, especially late in the game, but we didn't capitalize. South Forsyth capitalized on its chances."
The visitors scored two goals on the Lady Cats in the game's first eight minutes, to go up 2-0.
Woodland got its defensive thrusters working after that lapse and kept the Lady War Eagles from scoring the rest of the period.
The Lady Wildcats also came to life offensively and threatened to score several times before Sara Garrett sent a shot to the right of the goalie at about the 25th minute, to close the score to 2-1. Stephanie Hicks was credited with an assist on the play as she passed the ball from the right side over to Garrett, who turned quickly and fired from about 15 yards out in heavy traffic.
Woodland (2-6, 0-2 in Region 7-AAAA) kept the pressure on offensively the rest of the half but did not put a ding on the scoreboard.
The Lady War Eagles opened the second half in an offensive mode, and they kept the ball at the Woodland end until late in the contest, played on a windy night. Although not scoring until late in the half, they came close a number of times although under heavy defensive pressure. Twice the ball hit the crossbar -- once under its top bar, when it bounced straight down and out and the second time striking the left side of the bar before bouncing out of the box. A third time a Lady War Eagle had a clear shot at the goal but it went sailing just above it.
The Lady Wildcats had several opportunities to score late, but they didn't come until South Forsyth had scored their third and final goal of the night.
The closest Woodland scoring threat came with about two minutes remaining, when Stephanie Hicks broke down field with the ball, outmaneuvered a defender and fired a bullet past the goalie only to have it sail just wide of the goal.
"There was a lesson for us to learn," Morgan said. "We gave up two goals in the first eight minutes and that meant we had to play from behind the whole game. You can't do that against the good teams."
He said he was still pleased with the Wildcat effort.
The coach added the wind was a factor in the second half and Woodland didn't effectively attack the Lady War Eagles' goal most of that frame.
Late in the period, however, Woodland found its offensive bearings and engineered several attacks down the field with few defenders to stop their shot.
Those attempts, however, didn't result in points, and South Forsyth kept its comfortable margin.
The Lady Wildcats visit Sequoyah Tuesday. Game time is at 5:30 p.m.
S. Forsyth boys, 10, Wildcat boys 2
The Woodland boys high school soccer team fell in region play, 10-0, Friday.
The loss drops the Wildcat record to 0-8, 0-2 in Region 7-AAAA.