Aberdeen struck first but could not keep the offensive attack going in the second half, losing to Tumwater, 2-1 , in a critical Evergreen 2A Conference match Thursday night at Stewart Field.

The Bobcats (3-6, 4-8) will now have to do a bit of scoreboard- watching to see where they will end up in the league standings.

Aberdeen currently sits fourth in the league standings but will need to see how Centralia does to determine if the two will need to play a play-in game for the fourth spot in the District IV tournament.

Aberdeen and Tumwater (7-2, 10-4) both struggled to get any sustained offense going in a first half that was mostly dominated by midfielders. The Bobcats had some success sending through balls down the sidelines and on one occasion Emma Green was able to get control of one of those long passes and score by shooting to the far post.

The goal came in the 36th minute and gave Aberdeen the lead over Tumwater for the first time this season.

Both teams had to deal with a torrential downpour for most of the first half. As the weather dried up, so too did the Bobcats’ attack.

“The weather helped a little in the first half because it was raining and windy that direction and we lucked out,” Aberdeen head coach Larry Fleming said. “We handled the ball better in the first half and passed better and we could not get a touch on it in the second half.”

With the pitch a little drier and the wind dying down, Tumwater got the equalizer in the 44th minute when a pass found a striker inside the penalty area.

Tumwater did well to keep Aberdeen from getting too many chances of its own and eventually got the game winning goal on a free kick where traffic in front of the goal appeared to obstruct the view of Reagan Glanz as the ball hit the post and snuck into the back of the goal.

In an effort to jump-start the offense, the Bobcats moved one of their defenders to the midfield but still had trouble getting the ball past midfield.

Glanz made one more spectacular diving save to keep her team in it in the waining minutes but the Thunderbird midfielders played well down the stretch to help preserve the victory.

Aberdeen’s youth was evident in the second half and Fleming said he would like his young forwards to get more comfortable sending the ball into the middle when they do get room to run down the sidelines.

“We still struggle with some inexperience once we get to the attacking third,” he said. “We need to start playing the ball across instead of shooting from a tough angle because we were hitting the side of the net.”

Despite the result, the Bobcats still have a decent chance to qualify for the postseason if they can come away with a win in their next game. Aberdeen will play a winless Rochester team to close out the regular season in a game that has major playoff implications. That game has been rescheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday at Stewart Field.

Fleming is proud of how much his team has improved since the start of the season.

“We worked hard at the beginning of the season but now we actually have a little bit of skill on offense and defense,” he said. “We’re communicating better. Young players don’t know how to talk soccer and now they’re saying ‘I’m on the line and I’m coming to you.’ And defensively we’re 10 times better. We mark up so much better.”