South Whidbey High School’s 2-0 soccer loss at Archbishop Murphy Tuesday, March 20, was a good-news, bad-news situation.

The bad news, of course, is that the Falcons lost the conference opener.

“The good news is this is the last time we ever have to play ATM at their field,” Falcon coach Emerson Robbins said. “The game did not go as well as I had hoped, but it also was not a complete disaster. I don’t feel they beat us as much as we beat ourselves.”

Two major mistakes set up the Wildcat goals, Robbins said.

One was a dangerous drop in South Whidbey’s defensive third that went directly to Archbishop’s most dangerous player, Sam Johnson. Johnson, left unmarked, lined the ball in for the match’s first point.

“Their second goal was even more frustrating,” Robbins said. “We fouled one of their players in a central area maybe 20 yards from goal, and there was some confusion on our team’s part in setting up the wall. Plus we didn’t have one of our guys delay the kicker. So during this chaos, their kicker wisely took the kick before the wall was completed and easily knocked it in.”

The fact that the Falcons had covered this type of situation several times in practice made it “particularly disturbing,” Robbins said.

South Whidbey “took the offense” in the final 20 minutes, according to Robbins, but couldn’t convert.

“Now that we understand the nature of their attack, it should be a better battle when we meet them on our field,” Robbins said.

Murphy is now 1-0 in league play and 1-1-1 overall.

Robbins lauded the play of Lake Smith, Ari Rohan and Thomas Simms.

Simms, a freshman, is “small in stature but very skilled and fearless against older, bigger and stronger players,” Robbins said.

South Whidbey (0-1, 1-1-1) hosts King’s (1-0, 3-0-1) at 6 p.m. Friday, March 23.