It wasn’t pretty, but the South Whidbey High School soccer team slogged its way to a 3-1 win at Granite Falls Wednesday, April 18.

“We played our best match on Monday; for reasons I can’t seem to figure out, we played our worst last night,” South Whidbey coach Emerson Robbins said.

Regardless, it was a win for the Falcons, who upped their Cascade Conference record to 5-4-1 (6-4-2). The Tigers remained stuck in the league cellar with a 0-9 mark (1-12).

Granite Falls scored first on a penalty kick.

“Their kicker sent a ball over our wall and into the upper V; a pretty much unstoppable kick,” Robbins said. “We’ve now allowed three goals on free kicks from a central area… We need to stop fouling in this dangerous area and not give teams that opportunity in the first place.”

South Whidbey switched to a 4-5-1 formation in the second half to better defend midfield and control 50-50 balls, which helped kick-start the offense.

Soon after the break, the Falcons tied the game on a penalty kick by Graham Colar.

Ten minutes later, South Whidbey took the lead when striker Michael Lux bulled his way through the defense and scored.

Lux finished the scoring with another goal, this one assisted by Nevin Daniel.

“The bad news is that we played horribly, especially the first half,” Robbins said. “The good news is that we re-gained our poise and took the game over in the second half.”

The Falcons earned a 15-7 advantage in shots.

South Whidbey plays at Sultan (1-7, 2-9) at 6 p.m. Friday, April 19.