Coach Mike Hanie expected some growing pains this season. It was almost inevitable, with as much youth as there is on the team this year, and some of that showed in the Panthers most recent 5-2 loss against the Northgate Vikings, a team that’s riding the back of 16 seniors this year.

“They have some quality players,” Hanie said, “and we were just a step or two slow. They’re bigger, stronger and faster than we are and we’re super young. We’ve only got three upperclassman on the field right now and the rest are very young and inexperienced.”

Northgate jumped out of the gate ready to play, scoring within the first five minutes of the game on a shot inside the box by senior Ryan McNeal.

About 14 minutes later, the Panthers bounced back and tied the game at 1-1. A counterattack left Viking goalkeeper Cooper Morrison out of position, and sophomore Sam Pompeo was able to capitalize, heading the ball into the top right corner and past three Northgate defenders.

It didn’t take long for Northgate to respond, as senior Jamie Skalski, who will be playing football at Clemson next year, scored on an impressive shot that went right past freshman goalkeeper Michael Lantz with a little under 18 minutes left before halftime.

Senior Whittaker Chu was subbed out of the game shortly following the goal after bumping knees with another player, but came back in after halftime. Pompeo was also subbed out temporarily after receiving a yellow card from the referee, and just like Chu, was subbed back in after the break.

Northgate held the 2-1 lead through halftime, but senior Jack Van Nimwegan leveled the score again at 2-2 just two minutes into the second half.

“I think that the game, in the first half, went pretty well,” Van Nimwegan said.  “We made an error within the first 5 minutes, [but] I think we battled back well. We scored quickly in the second half but Northgate wanted the game more than us and they outplayed us.”

A reckless slide tackle by Panther defender sophomore Michael Haynes in the box on Skalski gave Northgate a penalty kick, but no card was given. Northgate made the shot and regained the lead at 3-2 with 33:46 left to play.

After a couple of counterattacks by each team that didn’t result in anything more than a shot at the goal, Northgate scored again, this time on a header to the top left corner by Skalski. It came off of a corner kick to increase the lead to 4-2.

“That [Skalski] is a real good player,” Hanie said. “I went over and joked with him after the game. I told him ‘well, I won’t be missing you next season.’ We just had no answer for him tonight.”

Northgate stayed on the attack, getting three shots from inside the box in the 62nd minute with two of them blocked by Lantz. As the ball was cleared, Skalski kicked a rocket of a shot back towards the box, but it accidentally hit a turning Haynes in the side of the head.

He immediately collapsed to the ground, but was helped off the field after a short delay and was taken out of the game. He was diagnosed with a concussion and Hanie fears he will miss the rest of the regular season.

The last goal of the night came on an impressive shot from the Northgate attacker, whose shot from the right side of the box went over the head of Lantz and into the top left corner with 14:08 left to play.

After the goal, Northgate backed off and the Panthers made a few attempts on goal but couldn’t cut into the lead.

The loss dropped them to 7-4 overall and 7-1 in Region 4-AAAAA play. It was the third loss in four games for the Panthers. The team will look to get back to their winning ways tonight, when they travel to Marist for a non-region game.

“We’re beating the teams we’re supposed to beat right now,” Hanie said, “and I think we should have won the East Coweta game from Friday, but in most of our losses, we were just outmanned.”