The Piedmont Highlander Boys Varsity soccer team played against O’Dowd Friday night, with O’Dowd taking the 0-3 win.

The Highlanders pushed through the game as freshman Benjamin Gerber stepped out of the game during halftime with a head injury, and team captain Henry Devan walked off the field with a quadricep injury early in the second half.

Although O’Dowd had a strong night, Piedmont had some great highlights on defense, especially from sophomore defender Lukas Bekele, who stopped O’Dowd from advancing the ball many times throughout the game.

“I was just trying to stay calm. I was a little bit nervous at the start, but it got better,” Bekele said. “Next game we just gotta come out hard.”

Captain senior Henry Devan said he was hungry for the victory.

“I wanted to win. It’s our home turf,” Devan said.

Senior and varsity team captain Elias Reed-Miguel said that there’s definitely room for the team to improve.

“I think we came out a little slow in the first half, but I think in the second half we fought harder and didn’t let it get embarrassing,” Reed-Miguel said. “Obviously, we’re a young team, so there are certain moments where we have inexperience.”

In particular, Devan said that they struggled most with listening to their coach, Ben Russell.

Russell said he hopes the team will create more opportunities during their next game.

“Just take the little opportunities from this game, silly little mistakes of letting in goals, how can we create more opportunities going forward?” Russell said.

Reed-Miguel said he hopes the team will perform better next time they play O’Dowd.

The team’s next game is away against San Leandro on January 27 at 7:00 p.m.