The Powell High School boys soccer team suffered two conference losses over the weekend. On Friday, Powell lost 3-1 in Cody and on Saturday, Worland beat the Panthers 2-1 at home.

But, boding well for the rest of the season, head coach Jeff Dent is seeing progress.

“It’s becoming a team mental situation, where they are working together, not just 11 guys running around on a field,” Dent said. “I’m proud of the men and excited that we are going to keep improving every week so that our goal is to peak when state comes.”

Cody 3, Powell 1

Powell got off a number of shots in the first half.

Brian Crawford took two shots on the goal before the 10 minute mark; the first shot was just to the right of the goal, but the second went in at the seven minute mark. Also in the first half, Owen Dent and Mason Schmidt fired shots on the goal, but they were unable to hit the back of the net.

At halftime, the score was tied 1-1.

“The team played much better in shape and form and was able to manage [its] positions better,” coach Dent said of the improvement from the weekend before. “But what we saw with Cody was that we had not communicated as well as we thought we would and it appeared at the end that we ran out of gas and that’s when they were able to get a hold of us.”

In the second half, Brekyn Herd was able to get one shot and Owen Dent attempted five corner kicks. All six shots on the goal were good shots, the coach said, but the team was just unable to capitalize on them.

The game between the Panthers and Broncs remained tied until the 72nd minute when a penalty was called on a Panther, giving Cody a penalty kick.

Cody scored on that penalty kick, then scored again in the 78th minute for the 3-1 victory.

Coach Dent said it was a good, educational game against a very tough, intense team.

Worland 2, Powell 1

“Worland was a much better game, much more exciting,” Dent said, adding that his players “stepped on with a very different focus — their minds were in the game, they were ready to play, they stepped out there and took Worland on.”

At the start, Powell had to fight against a strong wind, which made for a fast-moving ball in Worland’s favor.

In the second half, Powell started with the wind at their backs, but the breeze soon died down.

Brekyn Herd scored a goal early in the second half.

Owen Dent also made four shots on the goal, but the Warriors’ goalie came up with saves to prevent the ball from going into the back of the net.

Worland won 2-1.

“It was a hard-fought game that the players played much more up to their abilities — and were extremely close to pulling off a much desired win,” said coach Dent.

The clock stopped working at the 10 minute mark in the second half. Each half is 40 minutes long.

Coach Dent said the stopped clock was a concern; it forced the coaches to yell out how much time was left and to encourage their players to keep playing, as something like that can affect the mental part of the game.

“You don’t realize where you are and you can get lax — and I do think that happened,” coach Dent said.

However, despite the clock situation, the coach took away a lot of positives from the game.

“Our defense and our goalie worked very well together, communicating, getting the ball back out to each other and holding their own on that. We were passing, the midfield was there doing their passing getting between each other getting the ball outside,” Dent said.

He added that, “Worland plays a very good game of getting on the man as soon as he gets the ball and forcing our guys to pass the ball quickly — the boys stepped up and were getting that done.”

In practice, the Panthers have been working a lot on passing and getting the ball up the field

“It appears to us coaches that they are getting what we are trying to teach them,” said a “very proud” coach Dent, adding, “It seems like the guys are seeing the vision, are catching on and learning that each one of their positions is important and to stay there.”

Over the last week, Dent said players were not running into someone else’s position, taking responsibility for their positions and seeing that, when that happens, they can pass the ball more easily, because they know where their teammates should be.

“[They are] building confidence in each other,” said Dent.

Powell will travel to Riverton on Saturday to play the Wolverines at 2 p.m.

“With [Monday’s] practice, I’ve seen our athletes actually come together as a team, so I expect to have a very tough team against Riverton,” the coach said.