The Los Altos Eagles shut down the Vikings in a 4-2 win at Mayfield, Wednesday. It was Paly’s first loss of the season.

"It was the type of game where you make one mistake, and the other team makes you pay," head coach Ernesto Cruz said.

Palo Alto (5-2-3, 0-1-1 league) beat the L.A. Eagles (5-1-1, 2-0-0) earlier in the championship game of a preseason tournament 2-1. The Viking girls went into the game looked for another big win over the favored Los Altos team, but were disappointed.

Paly was missing one of its star players, junior midfielder Teresa Noyola, who was in Argentina playing for the U.S. national under-17 team.

Los Altos got its offense going quickly, pushing deep into the Paly back line. The first score of the game came after just five minutes of play. After some chaos in Viking territory, a Los Altos forward was fouled by Paly senior defensive back Alyson Seedman inside the box. The penalty shot, taken by Los Altos’ Margueritte Aozasa, flew past the diving Paly keeper Christy Gauthier to give the Eagles the early 1-0 lead in the contest.

"The main difference between this game and the last was who scored first," Cruz said after the game. "We were the first [to score] last game, and that gave us a chance to manage the game the way we wanted."

Numerous scoring opportunities for the Eagles came and went without much result for the next few minutes. Similar to the beginning of their game against Gunn two weeks ago, Paly seemed to have trouble controlling the ball long enough to put together an effective attack.

After a few critical saves from Gauthier, Paly mounted a rare offensive attack in the 13th minute. Working the ball up from deep in the back line, the pair of Paly freshman forwards hooked up with a bullet pass from Kelly Jenks to Maeve Stewart, who put it in the corner of the net to tie the game at 1-1.

Following the goal, both teams played kickball for the next ten minutes. Paly seemed to be holding their ground with offensive drives and possessions becoming more frequent in the Viking attack, more scoring opportunities showed.

In the 35th minute, Paly had a chance to take the lead when Jenks was pushed inside the Eagle penalty box. She took the penalty kick herself and drove it into the right corner, but it was deflected by the Los Altos keeper, giving Jenks another opportunity. The freshman could not finish it, and the score stayed tied going into the half.

"We had the opportunity to go up 2-1 before the half, but did not and we paid for it later in the game," Cruz said.

Paly looked tired coming off the sidelines for the second half, and it showed in their play.

The Los Altos offense was quick off the block again, scoring in the 44th minute. After commotion in the Viking box, Eagle forward Brittany Westrum got a shot off, which was deflected by Gauthier, but Westrum put it in on her second chance, giving the Eagles the 2-1 lead.

The next 20 minutes went by without scoring chances, as Paly tried to get back into the game.

In the 63rd minute, the Viking defense gave in, letting in a score from midfielder Emily Langston; Paly trailed 3-1.

To add insult to injury, Los Altos scored yet again in the 75th minute with a bullet in the corner from Sarah NeSmith. With just five minutes left to play, the goal put the nail in the coffin for the Lady Vikes, now down 4-1.

But the Vikings didn’t go down without a fight. In a final effort, the Paly offense broke through, and Jenks scored her third goal in the two games of regular season play.

"At practice, we are just going to keep working hard. We know we have a good team; we just need to get out there and take care of business," Cruz said.

The Paly girls play again Friday against the Saratoga Falcons in a non-league contest at Saratoga at 3:30 pm.