Effort still isn’t an issue for the Lady Pioneers. Exhaustion, however, is starting to wear down the Warren County High School soccer team.

The Lady Pioneers lost both their District 6AAA matchups at home this week, falling to Shelbyville 6-2 Tuesday and 4-0 Thursday against Franklin County. Warren County is now 3-6 overall and 1-2 in district games after seeing chances to win slip away in the second half of each matchup.

Coach Kimberly Smith witnessed her team’s willpower drain by the second half of Thursday’s matchup with the Lady Rebels. Warren County was fighting with all it had to try to hold down Franklin County all match, but once the visitors got on the board late, it was an avalanche of goals that the Lady Pioneers couldn’t answer.

“The girls worked and played so hard,” said Smith about Thursday’s matchup. “It was 0-0 with 25 minutes left and we kept it 1-0 with a chance to tie until 15 minutes to go. We just got tired with our low numbers right now. I couldn’t have asked anymore out of them - I’m proud of how they played.”

Injuries have taken their toll on the Warren County roster, as has attrition under the first-year coach. Coach Smith came out of tryouts with a roster of nearly 20 players, but that has been whittled down so much during the year that sometimes the Lady Pioneers are left with just 2-3 subs in 80-minute marathons.

Running on fumes, Warren County found the fight to challenge Franklin County for over 60 minutes, but it slipped away in a hurry down the stretch. Two days before, it was Shelbyville’s hot start that put the Lady Pioneers in catch-up mode the whole way.

“They were quick and we started slow,” said coach Smith. “We started really slow and gave the ball away a lot. The second half, we came out stronger and played harder, but they were really quick.”

Senior Savannah Winfree got her first goal this season when she netted one against the Shelbyville, while freshman Jayla Garibaldi also got on the board against the Lady Eagles. Garibaldi now has six goals this year, second on the team (Bekah Jackson leads the way with eight goals).

Warren County will try to get back to even in district games next week when it hosts Coffee County. The matchup is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 20 and will start at 6 p.m.