“After Wednesday night, South Whidbey High School soccer players know whom they have to beat this year.Taking on Lakewood on the road, the Falcons could not come up with a solid net shot and lost a 1-0 squeaker to their North Cascades Conference rival.A state tournament team last year, Lakewood did not completely stifle the Falcon offense during the game. In fact, the Cougars lost the shooting contest in the record books, taking only 12 shots on goal to the Falcons’ 16. But, said Falcon assistant coach John Jelinek, Lakewood’s goalkeeper played an outstanding game, and received some lucky breaks when several Falcon shots went just inches wide of the net.With the loss, the Falcons give up the lead in the conference standings, dropping to 3-2 in the NCC and 5-2 overall.Jelinek said the loss should give the Falcons more reason to work extra hard in practice. In fact, he said he almost feels sorry for the teams from Meridian, Blaine and Sultan, who will bear the brunt of the Falcon tune-up over the next week.The Falcons played Meridian Friday night at home. They play Blaine on the road Wednesday and Sultan on the road next Friday.”