Though the Chieftains lost 4-0 at Blue Valley Southwest in Overland Park, their coach thought they played solid defense and competed well with the No. 5 team in the Kansas Coaches Class 5A Rankings.

“They were really good but we defended really well,” THS coach Justin Seever said, noting senior goalkeeper Alex Bartels had a number of good saves to keep the team in the match and the defense played well in front of her.

The coach said Tonganoxie (3-10) got into trouble in the first half because the Timberwolves dominated 50-50 opportunities, leading to a 3-0 halftime hole for the 4A underdogs. He also said THS had three or four legit attacks against BVSW and just had trouble transitioning from a defensive approach to a quick counter-strike.

Seever thought the four-goal loss to a strong team should help the Chieftains’ confidence.

“Everybody was all worried they were gonna run over us,” he said.

By competing with one of the top teams in 5A, Seever said, Tonganoxie showed it is close to becoming a better team.

“If we defend like this, take away a couple of those goals and attack like we normally attack, we’ll be good if we put it all together,” he said.

At 5 p.m. Monday, THS is scheduled to play host to Kansas City-Washington.