The Morgan Academy Senators boys varsity team couldn’t stop the Macon-East Montgomery Knights, as they fell 9-0 at home on Friday.

Jay Minter, assistant soccer coach at Morgan Academy, said the Senators showed improvement, and the young program is still developing.

“We made them work as hard as they could work to get three goals in the first half,” Minter said. “It’s the best half we’ve played as a varsity team, and we played against a really good team. We’re nowhere near their level yet, but I think our team is starting to believe it can improve. We’ve got to learn, we’ve got to grow, but given time we’ll get there.”

The Knights got it going in the first half when J.D. Owings scored a goal.

Owings wasn’t done in the first half, scoring two more goals, including one on a header off a corner kick that gave him a hat trick in the first half and the Knights a 3-0 lead going into halftime.

Owings picked up where he left off, scoring an early goal in the second half that set the tone for the Knights the rest of the way.

It was a tough loss for the Senators, but Minter said there’s a lot of soccer still left to be played.

“This year we’ve got five region games left over a seven-day stretch between next Saturday and Good Friday,” Minter said. “We keep playing hard, and one of these days we’re going to get the luck instead of the other team.”

The Senators will play again, Saturday March 31 at home against Autauga Academy at 4:30 p.m., starting off a stretch that will include makeup games moved from earlier in the season.