The Viking soccer team came out to play on their homecoming Saturday and while they lost 6-1 to Shoreline Christian, they played with spirit and finesse.

“We played very well,” Coach Matt Stolmeier said. “The scoring didn’t reflect the number of chances we had.”

Fernando Arevalo made the Orcas score off of a deep ball from defense later in the game. Viking Taylor Smith sent a long ball and Fernando touched it with his head and finished it off, driving it into the goal for the Vikings. Robin Gropp had a lofty shot that almost went in, but just missed the posts.

“Chase Drake, a freshman, shows a lot of great ball control and soccer vision that we look for in our players and he’s definitely going to be a key to the program in the next three years,” Stolmeier said. “He’s a great passer and team player.”

Next to other teams, the Viking soccer team is lacking speed, so their goal is to develop plays instead of outrunning other teams.

“That’s how we get beat. We get outrun. We beat with possession and tactical play but if you have players who can outrun everyone there’s nothing you can do about that,” Stolmeier commented.

The Vikings also played La Conner on Tuesday.

“We outshot the other team, but they beat us 4-1,” Stolmeier said. “They had a great header that no one could stop. La Conner is playing very well. We possessed the ball more than they did but again, they have way more speed on their side. Christopher Ghazel had a very nice goal that day.”

The Vikings needed to beat Shoreline to stay in league competition, but fell to Shoreline. They played their last game on Monday, Oct. 26 against Mt. Vernon Christian, falling to Mt. Vernon 4-0.