L’Anse Creuse soccer coach Scott Perez likes the versatility his team brings to the field this season.

The Lancers have 12 seniors and can adjust to different formations Perez wants them to play easily.

On Friday night, the Lancers scored two first half goals and made the lead stand, shutting out visiting Richmond 2-0 in a non-league match.

“I have 12 seniors and they all have played a little bit here,” Perez said. “This is probably the year we possess the ball the best. This group of girls will play any formation that I ask them to play.”

L’Anse Creuse opened the scoring 10 minutes into the contest when Grace Haynes scored off an assist by Emily Russell.

“Today is the first day we ran this formation,” Perez said. “We keep switching things up.”

The Lancers continued applying heavy offensive pressure throughout the half and it paid off with 3:42 left before halftime when Taryn Missig was knocked down inside the box, earning a penalty kick that she blasted into the right corner of the net, giving her team a 2-0 lead.

The Blue Devils could have gotten in further trouble had Richmond goalkeeper Kaylee Backers not been solid between the posts, making 10 of her 18 saves in the opening half.

“I thought Kaylee was a monster in net,” Richmond coach Karic Jones said. “We have to find a way to get Bella (Fair) and Lizzy (Kocher) playing well together. L’Anse Creuse is a team with (12) seniors and a lot of kids who play club. That’s a quality team.”

The Blue Devils, playing their first game of the season, didn’t record a shot on goal in the first half, but did muster three quality shots on net in the final 40 minutes. However, Lancer netminder Shyla Droske stopped all three shots, earning the shutout.

“Shyla is not a goalkeeper, she’s a volleyball player,” Perez said. “She’s an athlete, and I will take athletes any day. She’s used to having the ball in her hands setting and spiking it in volleyball. It was easy to teach her how to play goalkeeper two years ago, and now this is her third year.”

The win improved L’Anse Creuse’s record to 2-1 overall. Perez said his team needs to work on finishing their scoring opportunities.

“We have to finish our chances more,” Perez said. “If we shoot far post, we score three more goals and now this game is a blowout.”

The loss dropped Richmond’s record to 0-1 overall. Jones said he saw many positive things from his team in their first match of the season.

“We’re a lot better defensively than what we thought,” Jones said. “Izel (Parada) and Sidney (James) were a rock back there.

“We have goal scorers, and we need to find a way to score goals,” Jones said. “In most games we’re going to play the best two players on the field, and I think it will be good to get three games in next week. I think (we) can play well, compete in the BWAC and in our district for sure.”