OLYMPIA – When the ball doesn’t bounce your way, it’s hard to win at anything.

That came to pass for the Bainbridge boys’ soccer team as they lost to the Capital Cougars 2-0 Tuesday night in a 3A first round state soccer game at Ingersoll Stadium.

“They were very well prepared in the back,” head coach George Vukic said. “They put a lot of players in the back.

“They’re a good counterattacking team and that’s how they played. They were a good, sharp team.”

The Spartans and Cougars traded scoring opportunities for the first few minutes of the game.

Clay Goodhue had a look near the goal but couldn’t get the ball past a group of defenders.

Kenji Queva nearly scored in on a header off a corner kick a few moments later.

Capital put some good pressure on the Bainbridge defense but couldn’t kick one in until the 21st minute when a quick pass from Gabriele Zaccagnini found Charlie McDonald for an equally quick shot that deflected off a Bainbridge defender and past Bainbridge goalkeeper Alex Oechsli for the score.

Sam Freedman nearly tied the game up a few moments in the second half as he put a perfectly arched shot up that looked as if it would go in.

But Capital goalkeeper Keean Joling made a equally perfect save just before the ball could cross the line.

Joling also made two more nice saves off of Freedman shots while a Capital defender made a great slide tackle to block one of Freedman’s shots.

“I thought a couple of them were going to fall,” a despondent Freedman said afterward.

The Cougars put things out of reach in the 57th minute when Jeffrey Tran put in a rebound for the score.

Oechsli tried to snag a loose ball but ran into one of his defenders, which put the Spartan defense in a tough spot to try and clear the ball, but Tran was right there for the score.

The Spartans were without several players, including their best defender in Johnny Baggett who was out with an injury.

But Vukic said the loss of Baggett wasn’t the main problem they had Tuesday night.

“We played a well-prepared team,” he said. “Physically we were there but mentally we never got our game going.

“It (their run) has been exhausting,” Vukic continued. “A lot of kids are playing club ball. The freshness wasn’t there.”

Despite the loss, both Vukic and Freedman said they feel the team still had a successful season.

“Everyone worked really hard and put it out there,” Freedman said. “It just didn’t fall” our way.

“We had some massively huge, exciting moments,” Vukic said. “We played some memorable soccer. This is not a season that you look back on with regret.”

Bainbridge ends its season at 11-3-5.