With strong defense already nailed down, the Dartmouth High girls soccer team is shifting its focus to developing its scoring skills.

That’s according to Head Coach Mark Poirier after the team faced its third tie of the season – 1-1 – against Sandwich on September 18. The tie brings the Indians’ total record so far to 1-1-3. With only a single loss on the books to Bishop Stang, Poirier thinks the problem comes down to inexperience when confronted with an opportunity to score.

“It’s been a little bit of that pretty much since the beginning of the season,” Poirier explained. “We play very well defensively, but we have a hard time not so much generating shots – we do generate shots – but actually getting goals to go into the net.”

It was a problem during the matchup against Sandwich. By the end of the first half, given three scoring opportunities, the Indians only managed to put a single point on the board, Poirier said.

“Goal scoring is a talent, and it calls for focus and composure,” Poirier said. “We practice every day and we hope the shooting practice we have translates into goals scored.”

With a new crop of captains this season, including four-year varsity players Sarah Vieira and Gwenyth Taradash and senior Rachel Pereira, the three are already forming tight bonds which is helping with communication on the field.

“It’s nice that we have our keeper, and then we have a midfielder and defender,” Vieira said. “We’re able to communicate throughout the field and really control the middle.”

The three can already see their potential, but, like Poirier, are already eying offensive improvements going forward.

“Our defense is doing strong this season, but we’re struggling to finish,” Pereira added. “We have potential but we’re just struggling to finish now.”

The Indians face Durfee High at home for their next game on September 21. The team's first league game of the season is on September 26 against Barnstable.