It was in those last few minutes of the first half that Peters saw an obvious flaw in her Lincoln squad.
"Endurance. We were just not as conditioned as they were," she said. "We struck first. We scored first. It was just a matter of we died. The endurance needs to be more of a priority. We're going to start hitting it harder."
Lincoln may have been struggling by the end of the first half, but the soccer Pats made an impact early. It took just two attempts on goal for Lincoln to get a shot in on Bryan Station keeper Alex Iniguez.
Micah Ward scored the goal in the 2nd minute of the game off a cross by Josh Peters to put Lincoln up 1-0.
"It was a great start," Coach Peters said. "We brought the game. We were coming off two successful scrimmages (3-3 tie with Estill County, 3-1 win over Middlesboro) and we came in and struck first. We were optimistic about what we could do and we did well."
Lincoln (0-1) held onto its lead until midway of the half when Mario Iniguez tallied his first goal to knot the game at 1-all.
Giving up the two late first-half goals may have cost the soccer Patriots the lead but not their pride. Despite being outrun by the Defenders in the second half, Lincoln challenged hard, holding Bryan Station scoreless the final 40 minutes.
"We held them," said Peters. "They got in those two goals because we got tired just before the half but we got a good rest at the half and kept them out the rest of the way."
After going 0-16-1 last season, Peters says she feels confident about the soccer Patriots' ability to put some wins up this go round.
"We will see wins," she said. "It's just a matter of getting the kinks worked out. It's a do-able thing once we get our endurance and conditioning levels up. We've got to condition harder."
"Starting Wednesday that is going to be priority number one."
Bryan Station outshot Lincoln 24-15.
Lincoln keeper Zac Rice was credited with seven saves and Station's Alex Iniguez had eight saves.
