Mount Vernon took advantage of several mistakes by the Oak Harbor High School soccer team to defeat the visiting Wildcats 5-1 Friday, March 17.

Oak Harbor was missing two starters, Andrew Franssen and Nathan Merrill.

“We gave up three goals in the first half due to serious mistakes,” coach Jeff Laiblin said. “We adjusted the line-up to better fit the players we have at halftime, and we played much better.

“We were hoping that we could just plug players into the system and we wouldn’t miss a beat, but it didn’t work.”

One positive, Laiblin said, was the Wildcats “played a strong second half that we can build from.”

Spencer Champion tallied Oak Harbor’s goal.

“Tomorrow we play Stanwood in our final tune-up before league, hopefully continuing to build upon the second half from last Friday,” Laiblin added.

Oak Harbor (1-1-1) goes to Stanwood (0-2-1) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 21, and then begins conference play at home with Edmonds-Woodway (0-2-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 24.