The King’s Fork High School field hockey team exited the first week of the season with a loss, an important question, some bright spots and significantly less time on the field than its cross-town rivals due to a scheduling shake-up.

The Lady Bulldogs were originally set to open the season on Aug. 25 at home against Deep Creek High School, but a fundraiser at King’s Fork interfered, making Wednesday’s home matchup against highly-regarded Grassfield High School their new opener and only game of the week.

KF coach Courtney Van der Linden said this was not optimal, but her team had spent a lot of time preparing for the Lady Grizzlies and responded with a great first half.

“It was definitely the best I’ve seen us play, I’d say even ever,” Van der Linden said.

King’s Fork controlled the game and featured excellent execution of the plan to shut down Grassfield.

“The coach on the other team, you could see that he was, I would say, freaking out a little bit,” Van der Linden said.

The Lady Bulldogs were not able to take advantage of some opportunities on offense, but they kept the Lady Grizzlies off the scoreboard, too. The teams were locked in a scoreless tie at halftime.

Then something changed in the second half, and Grassfield left with a 3-0 win.

“I don’t really know what happened,” Van der Linden said, admitting on Saturday she has been trying to figure it out since Wednesday.

She said it was like the King’s Fork from a couple years prior re-emerged, complete with the mindset of that era.

“We didn’t think we were capable of winning anything, and that’s what it looked like,” she said.

Grassfield’s first goal came during a five-minute window when the Lady Bulldogs were down a player after one was carded.

“Some of the players, especially the younger ones are still kind of stuck in a (junior varsity) mentality,” Van der Linden said, which is illustrated by senseless plays and letting the frustration get the best of them.

On offense, the Lady Bulldogs earned 12 penalty corners, but no goals, earmarking this part of their game as an important area needing some adjustments, the coach said.

Van der Linden was excited by standout KF players, though, including being surprised by the play of junior right defender Carlee Morse.

“She was our goalkeeper last year, and she had made it known that she wanted to make the transition to the field, and she had a great game,” the coach said.

Also producing a strong, consistent performance was senior center midfielder Rachel Gist.

Van der Linden praised sophomore goalkeeper Skylar Wall, attributing Grassfield’s goals more to chaos in the circle than to bad play from her new goalie.

“Especially with it being her first varsity game, she had a lot of different saves, showing that she was definitely stepping up and rising to the occasion,” while also exhibiting good communication with her defense, Van der Linden said.

King’s Fork (0-1) visits Great Bridge High School on Wednesday.