As the night grew colder the Falcon soccer girls got hotter in their 3-1 victory over the Anacortes Seahawks Thursday night.

The girls pressured Anacortes hard through most of the first half; Grace Itaya and Kelsey Kimmel made several gallant, but unsuccessful, attempts at scoring between them.

The Falcons had 14 attempts at the goal to Anacortes’ four.

When the Seahawk forwards would finally get the ball, South Whidbey’s defense — led by Rachel Harris, Lauren Sandri and goalie Amelia Cave — did a great job keeping them from scoring.

Sandri’s kicking skills have improved dramatically this season, as several opponents have come to appreciate.

Seahawk Kaitlin Daoust finally made a goal with 2:03 left in the first half, but she had to fight for it as Cave made a spectacular effort to keep the ball from the net.

“Being down by one goal at the half was worrisome,” said Falcon Coach Paul Arand. “Especially as we played so well.”

But two minutes into the second period, freshman Laura Barrow scored with an assist from Kimmel. Then Itaya scored, and Anna Lennon drove in the final goal to push the Falcons into the first round of the district playoffs. South Whidbey is now 10-7 overall.

The coach was very pleased with what he saw.

“It was a direct kick to Shannon Craig from Lauren, who sent a header shot to Anna,” Arand recalled. “Very nice.”

Itaya said the whole team knew they had to alter the game plan.

“We stepped up our game a lot in the second half,” Itaya said.

“We were getting the ball down field, had lots of scoring chances, but weren’t finishing. The coach told us we needed to come to the ball more and that worked,” she said.

The game also marked Barrow’s second varsity score.

“It was a corner kick from Kelsey, it deflected off Grace and I just kicked it in for the finish,” she recalled.

Throughout the entire contest, a 13-strong contingent of Anacortes Seahawks yelled out supportive chants. The reaction from South Whidbey players was mixed.

“I thought it was fun to have them there,” Itaya said.

But Barrow felt that by the end of the game, “It was getting a little annoying.”

Arand singled out Julie Iversen, Sandri, Christine Johnson, Jennifer Shafer, Harris — “Actually, everyone contributed,” he said.

The team stands at fourth in the Cascade Conference, but third among 2A schools after undefeated Cedarcrest (16-0) and Archbishop Murphy (14-2).

At 3 p.m. today, the team faces Sehome at Whatcom Community College.

Unlike the grass at Waterman Field, Whatcom features turf, a kind of plastic surface underlaid with rubber. Balls bounce more and the game is a lot faster, so the Falcons must maintain a keen sense of ball control.

“It’s a full-size made-for-soccer field,” Arand said.

Any advice to the girls?

“He told us we just need to find our feet and move the ball around more,” Itaya noted.