Aberdeen Central made the extra pass on Saturday to finish with a season-high in goals.

The Golden Eagles, featuring an unselfish attack, rolled to a 5-0 boys’ soccer win over Tea Area at Brownell Activities Complex.

“I’m hoping that people can tell that we worked on it a little bit this week,” said Central coach Lance Mohr. “Getting the ball down and playing, just moving it, working for each other, be more urgent in possession, urgent out of possession.”

Mohr said the squad is full of inexperienced players on the roster who are still learning.

“This team is young. There’s a lot of new faces,” Mohr said. “This is their seventh varsity game for some of them and to go 5-1-1 to start, is a fantastic start. If someone would have asked me to sign up for it, I would have said yes.”

The Golden Eagles have not had a match for a week, so the squad worked on an offensive scheme that featured turning down a good shot for a better shot and the results were evident.

“We haven’t really been doing that much. … We just started practicing it,” said Central’s Brook Bonn. “We had a whole week off and we just practiced it a lot, so we got used to playing like that.”

It was Bonn who had a hand in both of Central’s first half goals, assisting on the first to Marco Machado and burying the second.

“The first goal, I just crossed it in,” Bonn said. “It went past the defenders and Marco finished it.”

Bonn was the one who finished it for the second goal of the contest.

“Linus (Johnson) was dribbling up and then it ricocheted off (a Tea Area player) and the goalie didn’t know,” Bonn said, “so I just tried to kick it in and I just hoped.”

The two goals helped to offset a slow start for the Golden Eagles, something that Mohr expected might happen.

“After not playing for a week and not training all week, I expected it would take us a little bit to get back into the rhythm of the game,” Mohr said, “and once we did, the last 10-15 minutes of the first half were great.”

Central made up for lost time with three goals in the second half, two from Johnson and the last one on a penalty kick from Gus Bjerknes in the closing minutes.

“I feel like every game it takes a while for us to get into it, warm up into it,” said Central’s Gavin Hauck, “but when we do, we’re hot, so I like it.”

Hauck is part of a rock solid defense that has allowed just three goals in seven games so far this season.

“Come out, communicate, work the ball around, keep it on the floor, find feet,” Hauck said, “give the offense the best chance to score without getting scored on.”

Hauck said the key to holding opponents in check is to make sure the play occurs in front of the defense.

“Let nothing behind us is our main mentality here,” Hauck said. “They can’t score if nothing gets behind us. Prevent corner kicks as much as possible, nothing over the top.”

Interestingly enough, Central had more success on offense playing into the wind in the second half than it did possessing the wind in the opening half.

“The wind for us in a game like this when we’re kind of playing behind it hurts, because every ball that we send is just going long and way over the top,” Mohr said. “That’s what our game plan was. The second half actually was just a little bit easier to hit some of those balls.”

The Golden Eagles were able to deal with the hot temperatures without much of an issue. A pre-game snack helped.

“A lot of us ate some bananas before the game so we didn’t cramp,” Bonn said.

And getting an opportunity to go out and compete was more than enough for Hauck.

“It’s really hot, but you’ve got to enjoy it,” Hauck said. “Come out here and get a good game of soccer in. It’s nice. Two water breaks, you gotta like it.”

Central will now host Harrisburg on Tuesday before traveling to Brookings on Thursday is what will become a pattern heading into the second half of the season.

“Now we kind of have this stretch here where it’s really a grind, Tuesday, Thursday, Tuesday, Thursday for the rest of the season,” Mohr said. “We’ve got to get our legs back under us now. That will be the next thing, just rest this weekend and then come back and give it a fantastic effort on Tuesday and see where we end up.”

Tuesday promises to be a unique atmosphere as the Central maching band will be in attendance and putting on a pair of performances.

“I think it’s going to be a really fun day to play a game,” Bonn said, “especially when the band comes.”

Mohr is hoping that the band will get a chance to play the school song, which is does whenever the Golden Eagles score a goal.

“We want to hear the band play,” Mohr said. “We’re going to give it our all, and hopefully we get to hear it.”

Tea Area 0 0 – 0

Aberdeen Central 2 3 – 5

First Half: 1, AC, Marco Machado (Brook Bonn), 33rd minute; 2, AC, Bonn (unassisted), 38th minute.

Second Half: 3, AC, Linus Johnson (Gus Bjerknes), 53rd minute; 4, AC, Johnson (unassisted), 72nd minute; 5, AC, Bjerkness (Penalty kick), 79th minute.

Shots on Goal: Tea Area 3; Aberdeen Central 10.

Goalies: Aberdeen Central, Koltin Swearingen (3 saves).