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Breckenridge — The first game of the season always brings a higher level of anxiety for players and coaches waiting to see how the season will unfold.

Steamboat Springs High School's Thursday night matchup against the Summit Tigers at Tiger Stadium was no different. The Sailors jumped on top early en route to a 4-0 victory.

"The first half of the first game, there is always a lot of butterflies, a lot of nervousness," Summit head coach Justin Turri said. "I think we now got that out of our system."

Although the score was fairly lopsided, neither team's coach felt the scoreboard was indicative of the game's play.

"It was a four-nil game, but I thought that it was much tighter than that," Steamboat head coach Rob Bohlmann said. "We just did a good job of being efficient in the penalty area and taking advantage of our opportunities."

The Sailors jumped on a Tigers defensive lapse only 45 seconds into the game, as senior Blake Eddington knocked a shot past Summit goalkeeper Ben Ferris to put Steamboat up, 1-0.

Fighting back, Tigers senior forward Hunter Black dribbled through three Steamboat defenders, tapped the ball past the Sailors' charging goalie, Connor Birch, and seemingly had a wide open net to tie the score.

But as he ripped a low shot, a Steamboat defender dove and barely tipped the ball past the right goalpost.

Near misses would end up being the story of the night for the Tigers.

After another Eddington goal at 15:24 of the first half, Steamboat took a 2-0 lead into halftime.

The Tigers came out firing in the second half, but they couldn't find a way to get the ball past Birch.

Black once again put on a clinic with his footwork in the offensive zone, but after weaving through defenders, Birch was there once again to shut the door.

"That was a key save," Bohlmann said. "That could have really been a game-changer."

The Sailors added two more scores in the second half, one coming on a corner kick, the other ricocheting off a Tiger defender in front of the goal.

"I'm actually not disappointed at all," Turri said following the defeat. "I thought we were pretty even with them. We had about the same amount of chances, but they had some really nice finishes."

Black, though wishing his team had come out on top, thought the game was a good learning experience for a team that returned only five players from last year's squad.

"The level of play was what we wanted," he said. "Once we get the finishing down, we'll get those goals that we need to continue on. The goals will start to come, but tonight just wasn't my night."