Aberdeen Central used an aggressive offensive attack and a stifling defense on Monday afternoon.

The Golden Eagles pulled away from Watertown for a 4-0 Eastern South Dakota Conference girls’ soccer win at Brownell Activities Complex.

Central coach Merle Aske said one of the keys was for his team to pressure the Arrows throughout the game.

“The girls did a really good job of just staying organized and making sure that we limited their opportunities and keeping the pressure on them,” Aske said.

The Golden Eagles opened up the scoring in the first half on goals by Abby Witte and Lauren Joosten, giving Central a 2-0 lead at halftime. Aske said it was important to build a lead early in the game.

“We’ve been doing that this year. I think this is probably the third game, or maybe the fourth game, where we scored in the first minute,” Aske said. “It’s good and bad, because sometimes you relax too much and then you don’t get your rhythm going, but I thought we did a good job of staying in our rhythm.”

Central wasted very little time scoring at the beginning of the second half, as Gracie Lozenski scored a goal in the 42nd minute to put the Golden Eagles up 3-0. Lozenski gave credit to her teammates for scoring the goal.

“I think it really helped with my teammates encouragement,” Lozenski said. “First, I wasn’t going to go to the goal. I was going to play a ball to my teammate, but they really encouraged me to shoot it, so I think that’s what really helped that.”

The Arrows brought a relatively young and inexperienced team to the field, playing several middle school and freshman players on the pitch. However, Aske said his team was not concerned with Watertown’s youth, and instead, needed to play its own game.

“The biggest thing is we want to do what we do and play the way we play, and I thought at times we did that and at times we didn’t do that,” Aske said. “The opponent and the age of the opponents don’t matter. We’ve just got to do our job, and as long as we do that, we should be OK.”

Lozenski said the strategy was to put defensive pressure on the Arrows.

“We tried to push up more and win 50-50 balls,” Lozenski said.

Central’s Deshani Peters added the fourth and final goal in the 78th minute, punctuating the seventh win of the season for the Golden Eagles.

Lozenski said the win allows the team to continue to grow down the final stretch of the season.

“I think it really helps. At practices we can show improvement and work at what we need to work on and get to the championship,” Lozenski said.

Despite the aggressive defensive effort on Monday, Lozenski said the team is still working on improving its defense.

“We’re still working on our defense because we just had an injured player, so we’re working on that, and like pushing up, making sure we’re in the places and spots and just getting up the field,” Lozenski said.

The Golden Eagles (7-2) will travel to Yankton on Saturday for a 2 p.m. game, and Aske said the game will present challenges.

“They’re always very organized and I’m sure they’ll play a lot of players behind the ball and try to keep us from getting in,” Aske said. “We’ll just have to do a good job of moving side to side and possessing the ball and putting it in dangerous positions so that we get them out of their shape a little bit, so we can get some good shots off.”

Watertown 0 0 – 0

Aberdeen Central 2 2 – 4

First half: 1, AC, Abby Witte (Madison Hochstetter), 1st minute; 2, AC, Lauren Joosten (Gracie Lozenski, Kailyn Poppen), 9th minute.

Second half: 3, AC, Gracie Lozenski, 43rd minute; 4, AC, Deshani Peters, 78th minute.

Shots: Watertown 15 shots (4 on goal); Aberdeen Central 33 (17 on goal).

Goalies: Watertown, Mya York (13 saves); Aberdeen Central, Ciara Frank (4 saves).