"We have some really good, younger, talented players, and we tried to put them in a couple areas that we thought they could succeed," Dierkhising said. 

One of those players, Cami Bachmeier, moved from midfielder to attacker against the Zephyrs. Bachmeier scored the game's lone goal on a through ball from her teammate and midfielder Becca Smith. 

"Definitely, the new formation paid off," Bachmeier said about the team's changes. 

Tuesday's game marked a second difficult contest to start the season for the Bears (1-1-0), with Centennial at No. 6 in the most recent Class 3A coaches’ poll and the Zephyrs (2-1-0) No. 1 in Class 2A. 

The challenging schedule was no accident. 

"Our conference [Suburban East Conference] and our section [Class 3A, Section 4,] we feel are the toughest in the state," Dierkhising said. "Not playing tough nonconference teams isn't going to really do anything for us." 

The Bears' roster may look inexperienced with only two seniors in the program. Dierkhising, however, estimated nearly all of Tuesday’s lineup were varsity starters last year. 

Many of those players helped the Bears advance to the 2021 Class 3A, Section 4 title game, where they fell to Stillwater 2-0. The Ponies advanced to beat Centennial 1-0 in the Class 3A state championship game. 

The Bears have some motivation to make a long playoff run after finishing 1-1 against ranked opponents in the first two weeks of this season. 

"It feels good," Bachmeier said about the start. "We have some young players, but we are all working hard in practice every day."