MOCKSVILLE — Surry Central’s soccer team has dropped back-to-back games after losing 1-0 to Davie County, a 4A school, on Wednesday.

The Eagles opened the week by losing 5-0 to West Forsyth (4-0-1), ranked 14th in the state for 4A schools. The win improved Davie to 4-0-2 and drops Central to 3-2-1. The tie came to Forbush, which is ranked 11th for 1A.

Yes, Davie is a 4A school, noted Coach Blake Roth, “but it’s a team we’ve never lost to. Every year it’s a close game, but we usually pull it out by two goals. They are tough competition, but one I expect to win every time. It just didn’t work out that way today.”

After scoring 19 goals in the first four games, the Eagles were shut out in these two losses.

“West Forsyth was a team that was just better than us,” admitted Roth, but he believed his squad was better than Davie.

“I have, I believe, some of the best soccer players not only in Surry County, but also in the surrounding area,” he said. “They have to learn how to play together and learn to play our style that we are trying to integrate into the program.”

Considering the firepower the Eagles have on offense, Roth said there is no excuse for being shut out in back-to-back games.

“We had our chances tonight,” he noted. On four occasions, the Eagles got the ball into scoring position and fired off a shot that the keeper was able to deflect. Roth said those shots should have gone into the side netting, but the players kicked the ball too straight at the goal.

“We outshot them, they outpossessed us,” he summarized. Davie scored about 20 minutes into the game, and the Eagles couldn’t answer over the last 60 minutes.

“We gave them too many chances with a lot of silly fouls near the danger zone,” he said. The team was fortunate to turn every one of those free kicks away.

While he gave his team credit for not giving up, he said they must maintain their poise when behind.

“The boys are going to have to get humble and very quickly,” he said. “We’re lacking the hunger we’ve shown in years past. I’m afraid that they feel that past success kind of merits their lackluster performance from time to time. We feel like things will be given to us. But with success you also have a huge target on your back. Right now is a heck of a time to kick us when we’re down.”

Going into this week, eurosportscoreboard.com had Surry Central ranked third in the 2A division.

“We’re definitely not playing like the third-ranked team in the state,” he said. “I hope that ranking goes down because they need to get that hunger back.”

Things don’t get any easier today with North Forsyth coming to town. The Vikings are ranked ninth in the 3A division.

The two teams scrimmaged in the preseason and played to a 0-0 tie, said Roth, but the Eagles were playing better then.

“Everybody on the team needs to be his own worst critic right now … and figure out how to make the team better.”

Contact Jeff Linville at jlinville@mtairynews.com or 719-1920.