CARY — The Green Hope girls soccer team, which reached the third round of the NCHSAA 4-A playoffs last year, may be even better in 2009.

If you don’t believe it, just ask Panther Creek.

The Falcons (3-1), defending Tri-Eight champs, used a balanced scoring offense and a smart, hustling defense to post an impressive 4-1 road victory over the Catamounts on Wednesday.

It was the first conference match for both teams. Panther Creek fell to 1-3-2 on the young season.

There were signs about ten minutes before halftime that Green Hope might be ready to take control of the contest. The Falcons continuously drove the ball into Catamount territory, but Panther Creek goalkeeper Kenzie McNeilly saved five shots on goal in the first half to help keep the contest scoreless at intermission. Green Hope junior Reilly Brown nearly scored 30 seconds into the second half, but the ball narrowly sailed over the goal. Seven minutes later the Catamounts were not so fortunate, as Reilly drilled a shot from about 20 yards away to give Green Hope a 1-0 advantage at the 32:50 mark. Anya Koren earned the assist.

“After halftime we tried to go at them more directly instead of moving the ball side to side,” Green Hope head coach Bobby Peterson said. “Reilly made an amazing play on that first goal. Obviously she is a talented player and we want to get the ball to her.”

Still, the Falcons are blessed with a variety of scoring options, and three other girls took their turns in the second half. Tori Krause scored the second goal off a beautiful assist from Brown at the 19:04 mark, putting the Falcons up 2-0.

Panther Creek, expected to do well in the conference in 2009, began playing with more confidence following Green Hope’s second goal. They started passing and attacking more, according to head coach Todd Schuler, and with 9:25 remaining the Catamounts finally broke through the Falcon defense.

Junior Kate Northington scored with an assist from Ashley Clark to trim the Falcon advantage to 2-1.

“That first part of the second half we played tentative, afraid to make a mistake,” said Schuler, whose Catamounts reached the postseason last year in just the school’s second year of existence. “Green Hope really put us on our heels those 20 minutes, but we changed our mental approach and played more free in the last 20 (minutes).”

Unfortunately for Panther Creek, Green Hope scored thirty seconds after the Catamounts did, as senior Maria Rodriguez scored from close range, giving the Falcons a seemingly insurmountable 3-1 lead with just under nine minutes remaining.

Grace Hamashima concluded the scoring late in the contest with an assist from Keris Evans. The goal was set up when Ashley Stokes raced past a plethora of Panther Creek defenders and delivered a nice pass to Evans, who then found Hamashima in front of the goal.

“The nice thing about this team is that they all take turns scoring,” Peterson said. “We may not have an every game go-to player but on any given night any one of the girls can step up and be.”

For Panther Creek, the season has started slower than hoped, but there is still a lot of promise for the Catamounts as the conference games heat up.

“As long as our girls get more confident with the ball and they realize they have more time to make a play, we should be fine,” Schuler said. “I think we can build on the way we played the last 20 minutes tonight against a team the caliber of Green Hope.”