The Vanier Spirits and Central Cyclones went back-and-forth in an exciting high school girls soccer game on Thursday afternoon. The Spirits scored a late goal to pull off a 3-2 win over the Cyclones at Smith Field.

"We played pretty good, but in the second half, we got kind of panicky out there, the wind was against us and we were breaking down a bit," said Vanier senior Emma Friedt.

Molly Morris scored for Vanier in the first half to give them a 1-0 lead at the break and Jane Morris made it 2-0 for the Spirits early in the second half.

The Cyclones didn't go away, however, as grade 12 Tamra Reeve scored back-to-back goals for Central to even up the game. The comeback wasn't meant to be though, as Vanier's Belle Olson fired a shot into the Central net late in the second half to give the Spirits the win.

"We did really good, we're a (young) team so it was kind of hard, but we're getting into it and with more games, we'll get a lot better," said Reeve.

"We had a lot of good communication, good passing and we never got down on ourselves… we kept fighting."

The Spirits improved to 3-2 with the win, while Central fell to 0-3 with the loss.

Friedt feels like the Spirits are growing with each passing game, "There's a lot of people that showed up this year and I feel like we're really coming together as a team, doing a lot of team bonding and we're doing better each game," she said.

Central returns to the field to face Peacock on Saturday, while Vanier is off until next Thursday when they travel to Swift Current.

In the boys game on Thursday, the Central Cyclones cruised to a 9-1 win over the Vanier Vikings at Smith Field.

Fharis Ebet had four goals, including a hat trick in the first half, to lead the way for the Cyclones.

The Central boys will face Peacock on Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. and then go up against Vanier again in the afternoon at 2:45 p.m.

The Vanier Vikings face-off with the Central Cyclones in the high school boys soccer league on Thursday at Smith Field. (Photo: Marc Smith)