Growing pains are expected with any young team.

So, after taking a second straight defeat Thursday night, Oak Harbor girls soccer head coach Gretchen Hanson hasn’t reached a panic mode yet.

“We’re working out the kinks with a new team,” she said. “We’re bringing new players up and we just need to work on that confidence.

They have it — it exists, but they have to believe it.”

Oak Harbor fell, 5-1, at Monroe Thursday, dropping its seasons record to 0-2-1.

The Bearcats (4-0) jumped out to a 2-0 halftime lead they never relinquished. The score was only 2-1 with 15 minutes to go, but Monroe poured it on in the end.

Freshman Brooke Dewitt scored the lone goal of the game and the first of the season for the Wildcats. Senior goalkeeper Sheena Paddock had 22 saves.

Snohomish 4, Oak Harbor 0

Oak Harbor had a rough go in its first home game of the season Tuesday, losing 4-0 to league rival Snohomish.

Eight minutes into the contest Panther freshman Lacee Ross received a perfect pass from teammate Brianna Clark as she slipped behind the Oak Harbor defense. One-on-one with Wildcat goalkeeper Sheena Paddock, Ross drilled the ball into the right corner of the net.

Snohomish maintained a 1-0 lead until Ross scored again on a similar play in the 64th minute.

Heidi Dettmer tacked on a goal three minutes later and Mallory Mincks rounded out the scoring with just roughly a minute left in the contest.

Snohomish kept the ball in Oak Harbor’s end of the field for the majority of the game, out-shooting the Wildcats 15-5.

“We need to work on distribution from the backfield — two touch play,” Hanson said.

Oak Harbor may not have had many shots on goal, but when in Snohomish territory, they were able to give themselves solid scoring chances.

“We really did have good shot opportunities in front of the net — we know how to get it down the field and use the wing to the center of the field,” Hanson said. “We just didn’t put any away.”

Junior Gia Dimatteo had the best opportunity for Oak Harbor when they were only down 2-0 with 17:30 to go in the game. On a break down the field Dimatteo maneuvered around goalkeeper Carrie Artim, but couldn’t catch up to the ball and put it in the net before the Snohomish defense cleared it.

“She just played a great ball game,” Hanson said of Dimatteo’s hustle.

Paddock ended the contest with 10 saves in goal for Oak Harbor.

“She had one at the end that bounced off her, but on everything else she did really good,” Hanson said.

Oak Harbor plays at 1 p.m., today, Sept. 18 at home against Lake Stevens.