The Austin girls soccer team played a strong second half, but it wasn’t enough as they lost 2-1 to Mankato Loyola in Art Hass Stadium Saturday.

Loyola (4-0 overall) scored both of its goals in the first half as Karla Krmpotich scored on a put-back goal and Megan Knutson fired a shot into the corner of the net.

In the second half, the Packers (0-2-1 overall) stepped up their defense, but they couldn’t get a whole lot of offense. Carolyn Hackel scored a breakaway goal in the 59th minute to pull the Packers within a goal, but they couldn’t score the equalizer.

The game was played at 10 a.m. and the field was soaked and battered from Friday night’s football game. Austin head coach Enrique Camarena-Corzo wasn’t going to use that as an excuse for his team’s slow start.

“I don’t like excuses. The other team had the same conditions as us. We need to come to win and we need to come with the heart of a lion. If somebody makes a mistake it doesn’t matter and somebody needs to pick up that player,” Camarena-Corzo said. “In the second half we were the team that I know. They never stopped and they worked together.”

Hackel created a few scoring chances for the Packers in the second half. She had an breakaway with 32.29 seconds left that sailed wide left of the goal and she had a shot on goal with 37 seconds left that was stopped.

“Carolyn is a phenomenal player and she’s capable of creating goals, but it’s not just her,” Camarena-Corzo said. “We have eleven players and even the ones on the bench can come in. Christina [Hernandez] hadn’t played much and today she came in and did a fantastic job and Brooke [Pazurek] played well too.

The Packers had seven shots in the loss and Chloe Summerfield made 11 saves.