RIVER FALLS — The Wildcats got a couple solid looks, including a corner kick that was on target early, but Altoona got the better of them during Thursday’s home opener 2-0.

“Where we are right now is we’re an athletic bunch, we’re a coachable bunch and they’re relatively young when it comes to their soccer knowledge. The fact that they’re working hard and they’re athletic is an awesome place to start for what we have, but we have to work on the technical piece,” Head Coach Adam Koger said. “Continue to embrace every rep every day so that we aren’t missing opportunity to grow.”

The focus for River Falls has been developing one stage at a time. Once the defense is established, they can improve counterattack opportunities. Once the counterattack finds its rhythm and timing, the system offense can find its groove. The team faced some similar issues a few days prior at Wausau West in a 4-0 loss.

“We’ve had a big emphasis on defending as a team. They’ve got some really talented players over there,” Koger said. “One slowed them down, another came to double. So, from that respect it was outstanding. It’s building from the back. We’ve got to defend first, and then we will look to build our transition and attack.”

The team has two similar goalkeepers in junior Collin Jennings and sophomore Holt Brunkhorst. They both made some nice saves against Altoona. Holt made some big-time difficult saves to keep the Wildcats within reach Thursday.

“He’s really invested time in improving his craft,” Koger said. “We’ll be bouncing back between the two.”

River Falls graduated a list of experienced players from its deep playoff run a year ago, including multiple going on to play collegiate soccer. Now some underclassmen are getting their first dose of varsity action. Senior captain defender Gradyn French and junior captain midfielder Ben Huttemier will be two of the leaders tasked with forming that chemistry as a unit.

“My job as a coach is really to help them understand the game so that we know how to transition from defending to offense. When we figure that piece out, when we’re more dangerous knowing where to play quickly, that will make the big difference for us,” Koger said.

River Falls gets into conference play Sept. 1 against Menomonie, with the first home conference game Sept. 8 against Chippewa Falls.