DC Power saw a mistake cost them as they lost 1-0 to Sporting Jacksonville on Tuesday night at Audi Field. Jade Pennock’s 64th minute goal was the difference in the match.

DC Power came out very aggressive, hoping to put Sporting Jax on their back foot. Early on, Jaydah Bedoya was fed a pass by Katrina Guillou, but the shot was right at Jacksonville goalkeeper Kaitlyn Parks. Still, throughout the first half, DC Power was the aggressor, going right at spaces in Sporting Jax’s defense but somehow wasn’t able to generate goals.

Their best chance of the night came in the 39th minute, when Alexis Theoret was able to launch a rocket that caught Parks off guard. However, the shot clanged off the upper left post and out and the match went to halftime scoreless.

“We were just a little bit unlucky in the finishing department, but we knew we were making the right decisions, making the right passes, not rushing it,” Katrina Guillou said after the match. “And unfortunately, we just weren’t lucky at the end of the day.”

Any goals change games…[and] say that goal did go in, the game would have changed,” Alexis Theoret said of her shot that hit the post. “I think it would have been a completely different second half if that goal had went in and they’d gone down 1-0. I felt like everyone was amped up and really working towards the goal and then…[groans] it just hit the post.”

In the second half, DC Power continued to be the team with the run of play, as they combined some crisp passes in the defense and midfield to keep possession, but they weren’t able to get the final ball in. Katrina Guillou was particularly brilliant with moving the ball forward and attempting to find her teammates in dangerous positions.

[Katrina] played a hell of a game,” head coach Omid Namazi said after the match. “When the tackle was needed, she made a tackle. When a head ball was needed, she won the [header]. Every one of our players needs to take care of their responsibilities and their responsibility as players are to play hard. And sometimes I feel like here and there, we forget that, and then it ends up hurting us. It ends up with the other team scoring a goal.”

Those words summed up the night, as one mistake led to a defensive lapse in the 64th minute. Fully against the run of play, Sporting Jax’s Paige Kenton went on the break and sent the ball into the box from the right side. Jade Pennock finished the pass, banging the ball past Morgan Aquino to make it 1-0 to Jacksonville.

“I thought we were going to get the break that we needed, but it unfortunately didn’t happen for us,” Namazi said. “And we had the opportunities. We just weren’t clinical in front of the net.”

DC Power tried to regroup and push forward to get a goal, but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be. The match ends 1-0 to Sporting Jax, giving DC Power their second straight loss. Afterwards, Alexis Theoret said that the lengthy layoff – DC Power has played only 1 match since September 18th – could have contributed to the breakdown in connecting play, but it wasn’t held as an excuse.

“[Getting] these early games in with your team is very important. And it felt like we missed a little bit of time to get that gel together as a team and really learn how each other play and just try to find our own identity,” Theoret said. “So, that means we just have to work that much harder to figure it out, especially if it’s in training.”

“This game’s done and over with. There’s nothing we can do to change it now,” Katrina Guillou said. “But thankfully we have another four…days to reset and then hopefully have a different outcome.”

DC Power is back on the field this Sunday at Audi Field when they host Spokane Zephyr, where they hope to get back on the winning side of things.