SOUTH CHINA — In a battle between two talented teams, the one that makes a mistake tends to come out on the losing end.

Unfortunately for the Erskine girls soccer team, that was the case Friday afternoon as the Eagles fell 3-0 to Camden Hills in a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B game.

Charlotte Messer led the Windjammers with two goals and an assist. Both teams entered the game undefeated. The Eagles dropped to 4-1, while the Windjammers moved to 4-0.

The teams kept action back and forth until Camden broke the tie 15 minutes into the game.

Messer moved the ball downfield and attempted a pass that Eagles goalkeeper Cassandra Ray intercepted. However, Ray fumbled the ball, which fell into the goal to give the Windjammers a 1-0 lead.

Erskine did well to fight off early offensive pressure from Camden Hills, battling for possession and moving the ball down the sideline toward the Windjammers’ side of the field, particularly from Lauren Wood and Taylor Boucher.

“We don’t give up,” Erskine coach Ryan Nored said. “We could have been down five and we wouldn’t have given up. We do make the stupid mistake every now and again, but we’re still learning. It’s still early in the season.”

Camden Hills did an equally impressive job of limiting Erskine’s offensive opportunities in the first half, taking away passing lanes and moving the ball back into Erskine territory.

Camden Hills struck again two minutes into the second half. Messer knocked a floating shot from 20 yards away over the head of Erskine goalkeeper Danessia Ewen — who replaced Ray after Camden Hill’s first goal — to give the Windjammers a 2-0 lead.

Erskine showed improvement on the offensive end by connecting on passes and putting more pressure on the Windjammers. However, it was unable to knock a shot past goalkeeper Julia Holt. Erskine’s best scoring chance came when Christina Belanger received a pass from Avery Bond and raced down the sideline with an open path to the goal, but her shot went wide. Bond also had an opportunity on a free kick in front of the goal but her shot went high over the net.

“I think our aggressiveness picked up,” Nored said. “We haven’t faced many teams with (Camden Hill’s) speed and aggressiveness and it kind of hit us as a shock. We knew it was coming, but the speed of which they came was a shock.”

“In the middle of (Erskine’s) field there’s a lot of strength,” Camden Hills coach Meredith Messer said. “And (Bond) can really pass the ball. If you have your central midfielder distributing the ball, that’s a key piece to being successful. We knew (Belanger) would put some pressure on us, attacking-wise.”

Camden Hills added an insurance goal midway through the second half when Emma Gutheinz knocked a Messer corner kick into the net to give the Windjammers a 3-0 lead.

“We were very focused on winning today,” Messer said. “A lot of us were very focused on the bus, we took it very seriously. It’s a good win for us and I know (Erskine) is good competition, so in the long run it will help us.”

Holt earned the shutout for Camden Hills, making five saves. Ewen finished with eight saves.

Erskine’s schedule doesn’t get easier, as the Eagles play Oceanside (2-2) on Tuesday and Morse on Friday. The Mariners beat Mt. View 7-1 on Friday. Erskine defeated Morse 2-0 on Sept. 15.

The Eagles and Windjammers meet again Oct. 7 in Camden.

“They’re skilled, they’re fast, they work well together,” Nored said. “They’re well coached. You can hear them talking on the field about what they’re going to do and they do it. Hopefully when we play them in a couple weeks, we’ll be ready for that because we’ve seen it.”

Dave Dyer — 621-5639

ddyer@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @Dave_Dyer