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It worked.

Szymchack gave Helen Karston her first start in goal for the Warriors, and she prevented the visiting Kalkaska Blazers from finding the net in a 4-0 shutout.

Limiting the Blazers' shots on goal made the transition to a new goalkeeper easier, too. Most of the game was played in Kalkaska's end.

"We did a good job of forcing some long shots from Kalkaska," Szymchack said.

And most of those long shots either sailed over the top of the goal, or considerably wide of the net on either side.

Lauren Leach, Saraya Uitvlught and Mariel Glad keyed the Forest Area defense at the midfield defense.

Hillary Leach tallied the first goal for Forest Area with 8 minutes left in the first half off an assist from Emily Pojar, who also runs on the track team.

Although the Warriors didn't score again in the first half, they were in control and seldom permitted the Blazers to threaten.

Forest Area earned a corner kick early in the second half, and Lauren Kneer converted Leach's corner kick to make it 2-0.

Kneer started the first two games in goal for the Warriors.

Kalkaska did a good job of shutting Forest Area down the rest of the second half, but the Blazers' pushing the ball resulted in a strong counter attack by the Warriors.

With under six minutes remaining in the game, Megan Birgy scored off a through pass from Janell Gustafson.

Hillary Leach finished off the scoring with her second goal of the game off a throw-in from Kneer.

Roscommon came out hard and scored in the first 2 minutes of the game.

"We were able to hold them pretty tight, but the wind wore us down," Szymchack said. "We gave up three goals off defensive mistakes.

"Although we played better the second half, we were not able to recover from that first half deficit.

"Roscommon did an excellent job of taking us out of our game."

Pojar scored the Warriors' only goal off an assist from Hillary Leach.

Forest Area recorded its first win of the season last Monday at Houghton Lake, 3-1.

Birgy had 2 goals and 1 assist, while Pojar scored the other goal for her first of the season. Hillary Leach and Sadie Lovano each had 1 assist. Kneer had 8 saves in goal.

Forest Area had 4 shots on goal in the first half.

Houghton Lake's forward got behind the Warriors on a long ball, and was one-on-one with Kneer.

Kneer got her hand up, but the Bobcats player was able to push the ball around the post.

About 20 minutes into the game Lauren Leach had a non-goalie save to keep the score 1-0 for Houghton Lake at half.

"We came out strong the second half, and pushed to get the win," Szymchack said.

Pojar got on the end of a cross from Birgy to score the Warriors' first goal, and Birgy tallied the game-winning goal on a nice pass from Hillary Leach after using some nice work to get loose from her defender.

"Defensively, we played tight the whole game," Szymchack said. "We played a good game, with teamwork as our focus.

"We passed the ball well, and worked the ball around the field. Nine different players had at least one shot on goal. We played unselfishly; we worked hard on defense to only allow 10 shots on goal.

"As teamwork goes, we played an excellent game. We still have some work to do, but we are starting to produce opportunities to score and working at keeping the shots against us down."

Forest Area played at Clare on Monday and was scheduled to be at Glen Lake on Thursday.