Prior to their match against Rainier Beach last week, this year’s Spartan squad had given up only two goals throughout this entire season.

After last Thursday’s contest, the song remained the same.

And it was a victory tune.

The Bainbridge High varsity boys soccer team decimated the visitors in a 2-0 shutout win, their fourth of the year.

The home field win advanced the team’s overall season record to 5-1-1, securing for them the top spot in the Metro Sound Division.

Garfield High is ranked in second place, with a 5-2-1 overall record.

Sam Casad and team co-captain Sam Maracich each scored a goal against Beach. Spartan teammate Cal Barash-David earned two assists.

Glodi Kingombe remains the most scoring of the Spartans, having racked up three goals and two assists so far this year.

Maracich has managed two, counting his one against Beach, as well as one assist.

Gerrit Mahling also has scored two goals this year.

The game against Rainier Beach saw a long and scoreless first half, with much back-and-forth and very little action near the net. It wasn’t until the second half that the Spartan scoring machine kicked into gear and witnessed the game’s first goal, pulling ahead finally, and then, not long after, a BHS second score to secure the win.

Maracich and fellow senior team co-captain Wesley Houser both agreed that the team was playing well so far this year, but said there was work to be done on the Spartans’ endgame.

“Our defense is locking it down,” Maracich said. “We’ve got two really strong keepers and a really strong back line. We’ve had a lot of shutouts. We need to work on finishing, though.”

Some in attendance expressed the opinion that the Spartans should have run away with a big win earlier in the game — the BHS JV team crushed Beach’s junior squad 12-1 just before the varsity face-off — and they were obviously the superior team.

What, then, was going wrong in that first half?

Houser said that there may have been some shortcomings in the Spartan game at first, but the Beach squad were no slouches and the visitors had surprised them with their overall athleticism.

“I think they had a lot of speed [and] a couple of really talented players,” Houser said. “While we dominated possession, and just overall play most of the game, they were able to get us on counter attacks and a lot of times when we would defend we didn’t drop back as much as we should.”

Maracich said that the off start to Thursday’s game may be the result of the spring break interruption and the inevitable refocusing that follows.

“We’re restarting up now and it’s kind of slow,” he said. “We’ve got to get rolling by playoffs.”

Both team captains agreed that Spartan goalkeeper Huma Gisbert, who deftly protected this, the latest BHS shutout, was their choice for the MVP of the match.

The Spartans had faced some very skilled goalies recently, Houser said, and having a skilled player in the net makes all the difference.

The Spartans would play again at home the very next day, against South Kitsap High, before heading back on the road for their next two consecutive matches: against O’Dea Tuesday, April 14 and against Bishop Blanchet Thursday, April 16.

Not that any of that mattered to the team captains last Thursday, who both laughed and admitted that they had not even looked at the schedule past the very next day.

“I haven’t’ looked at it,” Maracich laughed. “One game at a time, that’s the trick.

“It doesn’t matter who your opponent is,” he added.

Team camaraderie was good, the two seniors said, though they were all still working to find where they fit within the confines of the group.

“I think that chemistry on the field, we’re still working on it,” Houser said. “And that just happens when you have so many talented players coming from so many talented clubs. You got guys who are coming and they might have been the star guy, the go-to guy, on their team, so they’re expecting to maybe take everyone on, where we try and make it more team possession.

“It just takes a little time,” he added. “By the end of the season it will be no problem whatsoever.”

BHS will not play at home again until Tuesday, April 21 when they host Franklin.