The Austin girls soccer team played right with Rochester John Marshall for most of the night, but they couldn’t finish the job in a 1-0 loss to the Rockets in Art Hass Stadium Thursday.

The Rockets (1-1 overall, 1-0 Big Nine) took the lead for good when Mara Dealing hooked a corner kick into the back of the net with 6:10 left in the contest. The Packers had a couple of late chances to tie things up, most notably when senior Kallie Bumgarner had her shot stopped on a diving save by JM with a few minutes left in the game.

Overall, JM had 13 shots on goal, while the Packers had six.

“I think we just have to continue to look at spreading the field,” Austin head coach Jake Levisen said. “Our opponent tonight just did long balls and if we continue to work on spreading the field, we’ll be fine.”

Austin senior keeper Myia Hoium kept the Packers in the game twice. She broke up a break away chance by JM with 20 minutes left in the first half when charged out and beat the attacker to the punch and she made a big time one-handed save with 7:03 left in the game.

“Hoium did excellent in goal. She had some tremendous saves, which is great,” Levisen said. “I think the ‘D’ really worked well together and kept each other in check.”

The Packers (1-2 overall, 0-1 Big Nine) are gaining confidence early on and Levisen, who took over as head coach shortly before the season, likes what he has seen so far.

“What’s great is every girl a new girl just increases their ability,” Levisen said. “A new girl surprises me every game. They’re working hard in practice and I know it’s going to come. They just have to keep their heads up and never look behind.”