STERLING – With a new coach and a some new faces in the lineup, the Sterling girls soccer team is looking for positives to build from in the early going this season.

The Golden Warriors got some of those Thursday night, even in a 1-0 loss to Winnebago at Roscoe Eades Stadium.

After an 8-0 road loss to Freeport on Monday and a 7-0 loss to Kaneland in their home opener Tuesday, the Warriors (0-3) held their own for 80 minutes against the Indians. The biggest part of that was the defense, which thwarted several Winnebago scoring chances throughout the game.

“I was emphasizing the defense, and the back line’s been amazing. This game was great, and after we had two hard games to start against two real good teams, you saw the progression and improvement in this game,” Sanchez said. “I think the midfielders did a lot better in this game than they did in the other two games, and that’s a work in progress. Even though we didn’t win, we did some good things today, and we’re going to build on this and take it to the next game.”

Winnebago outshot Sterling 11-2, including 8-1 on goal. But Warriors goalkeeper Rene Garza made six saves, and another shot for the Indians went across the goalmouth and hit the right post as Sterling played to a 0-0 draw in the first half.

The Warriors had a shot in each half, and had some offensive runs early on. Another chance after halftime saw speedy freshman Taah Liberty just lose out on a footrace to the ball.

But Sanchez liked what he saw from his Warriors when it came to turning defensive stops into chances on offense.

“We’re working real hard on our back four and our midfield, making sure they’re able to keep their shape so we can work on our counterattack a little bit,” Sanchez said. “We want to stop them, but also counterattack and give ourselves chances.

“And we’ve got a speedster in Taah Liberty; she’s so fast, and she’ll get her goals this season if we keep giving our offense chances.”

The Indians finally capitalized on a scoring chance midway through the second half to break the scoreless tie. With the ball bouncing off several players in a pack in front of the goal, ‘Bago sophomore Hailey Westphal finally got a foot on the ball with enough zip on it to push it past Garza with 25:18 left to play.

“You could kind of see the tension drop after she scored,” Winnebago coach Kelly Szymanski said. “I hope we can do it sooner next time, because once we get that tension out, we’re a better team. We play with each other a little better at that point. We were just sleeping in the first half.

“But we still won, so I’ll take it. I told them after the game that it wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win.”

Szymanski was pleased with her team’s effort, especially after halftime when the Indians were able to keep the pressure on Sterling’s end instead of trading offensive attacks back and forth like it was for much of the opening 40 minutes.

“I think we came together s a team better in the second half,” she said. “We’ve just got to keep working on communicating with each other and playing those through-balls better. Right now, we’re not playing to feet. So if we can get that, I think we’ll progress through the season.”