All things considered, it wasn’t a terrible result.

A beat-up group of Falcons gave the Cougars a battle, but Jenny Vetter and the Mankato East girls soccer team handed Faribault High School a 4-0 Big 9 loss Tuesday at Bahl Field. FHS has many of its players toughing it out through pain or injury, yet entered halftime down just a goal.

There were bits of offensive pressure early in halves and a bit at the end of the game, but it’s the middle of matches that’s been the weak point for FHS.

“I told them, we’re like a cookie sandwich right now,” coach Maddie Justin said. “We play the first 15 minutes really strong, we play the last 10 minutes really strong. We just have to keep it throughout the entire game and keep that intensity up, and it will come. But it’s really hard to do that with three-game weeks and not a lot of practice and a lot of hurt players.”

Vetter, one of the top players in the conference, scored three times for East (6-2-1, 3-1-1 Big 9), the highest-scoring team in the Big 9 entering Tuesday. Her speed and vision helped set up numerous chances for both herself and for teammates. It was Natalie Schisel’s shot in the sixth minute that made it 1-0 East, but the Falcons held on defense the rest of the half.

“It was a tough loss,” senior defender Mary McCoshen said. “We’re getting injured, it’s that point in the season, so we’re getting a little tired, the intensity’s starting to drop a little bit, but we’re still playing our hardest. They’re close games, they’re just getting lucky goals.”

Despite the lopsided final score, East didn’t overwhelm FHS with quality chances. The Cougars’ best look of the game wasn’t even a goal, coming on a break where Vetter found Ella Gavin, who put the shot off the post. Faribault’s defense was physical and did a good job making East earn its possession in the attacking third.

The Cougars made sure to take advantage of the good chances they got. Vetter scored the second goal of the game in the 50th minute on a nice shot from the left side, and then chipped a ball off the crossbar and in from 25 yards out or so in the 70th to make it 3-0. A foul in the box in the 75th gave East a PK, which Vetter — a Minnesota State University, Mankato commit — took and made for the 4-0 final.

“Our defense puts high pressure on them, the intensity is up there, just they get those lucky hits and they get them in,” McCoshen said. “That’s what we’ve got to work on is getting our hits in too, so then we can keep it a close game.”

“It just came down to a footrace on a few of those goals and we just didn’t have it,” Justin said. “When they were on [Vetter], we were good. That instant if she just had a split second or we were just turned to the wrong way, then she was past us. Yeah, she’s a phenomenal player.”

Faribault had forays into the attacking third, but weren’t able to pull the trigger on enough shots.

“We don’t take advantage of our shots,” Justin said. “That’s what Jillian [Specht, assistant coach] was saying after the game; we get our opportunities and we have to take them. That’s exactly it. We get there, we just don’t finish there.”

FHS is 0-7 overall and 0-5 in Big 9 play. Next up is a 7 p.m. Thursday game at Red Wing, which is 2-4-2 and 0-3-1 in conference.

“We’re just waiting to get that W,” McCoshen said. “It will come.”