It was a disappointing night for the Alpena High girls soccer team as they opened up district play and had its season come to an end with an 8-0 loss to Traverse City West on Tuesday at Wildcat Stadium.

“It wasn’t pretty. I’m a little disappointed because tonight we were not even really competitive. We didn’t have any intensity or enthusiasm to be here. We played with more energy when we played them in the regular season than we did in the state tournament and I’m kind of at a loss for that,” Alpena coach Tim Storch said.

The Titans dominated right from the opening whistle and kept the pressure on Alpena the entire game. Traverse City got its first opportunity less than two minutes into the game when the Titans were awarded a penalty kick, but Wildcats goalkeeper Maren Winter came up big early on and stopped the penalty kick to keep the game scoreless.

The Titans were able to create many more opportunities throughout the early stages of the game and ended up finding the back of the net just under nine minutes into the game on a corner kick that was deflected in.

Traverse City wasted no time netting the second goal less than two minutes later as Lexi Zoutendam gave the Titans an early two goal lead.

The Wildcats were unable to get anything going offensively and Traverse City was in complete control the entire first half as it added two goals late with less than 10 minutes left to take a four goal lead into the break.

The second half was no different as the Titans continued to dominate, scoring two quick goals to extend the lead to six less than seven minutes into the second half.

Traverse City netted its seventh goal at the 20-minute mark in the second half and a minute late ended the game with their eighth goal to mercy the host Wildcats and advanced to the district finals in dominating fashion and put an end to a rough season for Alpena.

The Wildcats were outscored 99-21 on the season and finished with a 6-16 overall record.

“It was a tough year. You can’t give up that many goals and be competitive doing that and it was a team thing. When we get better and tougher, athletically and physically we will get better,” Storch said.

The Wildcats had a group of six experienced seniors and were able to get some of the underclassmen a lot of experience throughout the course of the season. The team will be counting on some of these underclassmen to take a step forward next year in hopes of improving the program.

“Our seniors did a remarkable job, they did everything I asked. A lot of these girls were younger girls playing varsity competition. I thought we played well at times, but we need to be able to take that next step forward and it’s a long process, but I have seen some growth and hopefully it comes faster as we go forward,” Storch said.

Jonny Zawacki can be reached via email at jzawacki@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5690.