After making it to districts last season, the Robinson boys soccer team (0-1) played their first game of the season against Sickles high school (1-0) on Tuesday, Nov. 13 and lost 5-0.

“We are essentially playing with three freshmen starting,” Head coach Manuel Montero said. “This game was actually kind of an audition for a lot of the younger players.”

The team is at a disadvantage this year when it comes to players because they lost seniors last year and one of their best players, Steven Verdisco (’20), will be out for the season due to surgery to repair a torn labrum.

The Knights struggled throughout the night, giving up five goals with Sickles controlling the ball for the majority of the game.

“I feel like we have been playing better as the season has gone on and tonight we played well despite the score,” goalie Aaron Jones (’20) said.

Overall the team played as expected against Sickles but plans to improve throughout the season.

“Our goal is always to do our best in the district tournament, we have both a tournament and a schedule that is really hard at the beginning and then once we get into our district schedule we feel like we can do really well against those teams,” Montero said.

The Knights will face off against Plant Thursday, Nov. 15, at 6 p.m. at Plant High School (2415 S Himes Ave, Tampa FL, 33629).