The match was a tale of two teams that have gone in opposite directions in terms of success. The Chiefs have yet to relinquish a goal this season, and they have now scored 22 times on the way to improving to 6-0. Meanwhile, Saranac Lake is still trying to find the back of the after being blanked in each of its three games played so far.

Although the Red Storm ultimately lost by five goals, they did play better soccer after a shaky start that saw the Chiefs bury three shots during the first 16 minutes of the match.

Sydney Myers notched her second hat trick for the Chiefs in less than a week. The sophomore mirrored the performance she turned in during a shutout victory at Lake Placid on Friday.

“Their kids are fast and they move the ball well,” Saranac Lake head coach Jason Wamsganz said. ”Early on we took away what they were trying to do, but I think they kind of wore us down and found lanes. They play a lot of through balls. I think the first 20 minutes we had a tough time with that until we settled down.

Saranac Lake’s Cedar Young and Saranac Central’s Olivia Davis battle for possession in the first half Wednesday. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

“When we started taking those lanes away, they went wide and got the ball back into the middle.”

Saranac Lake’s starting goakeeper Amya Hurteau made a big save early on and then left the game briefly after a collison on the play.

That’s when the Chiefs got going. Myers netted the game’s first goal nine minutes into the match, and then assisted on Saranac Central’s second tally, scored by Grace Reil two minutes later. Myers netted her second with 16 minutes left in the first half to send the Chiefs into intermission with a 3-0 edge.

Saranac jumped ahead 4-0 on a tally by Eden Christon midway through the second half and Myers completed her hat trick while rounding out the scoring with 12 minutes remaining in the match.

The Chiefs outshot the Red Storm 20-4.

Wamsganz said Hurteau played another strong game in goal for Saranac Lake, and he also credited Sydney Dann, Claire Fletcher, Chloe Reardon and Lydia Wamsganz with solid efforts.

Saranac Lake was playing without two starters, including junior Alex LaDue, who is done for the year with a torn ACL.

“Not having those two starters wouldn’t make the difference between winnning and losing but we don’t have a lot of numbers,” Wamsganz said. “What makes it tough is without that depth, we are rotating kids in and out into postions where they really aren’t quite comfortable.

“We played a lot in our defensive zone and we’re going to continue to play in our own end if we aren’t controlling the ball on that first touch and moving forward,” he added.

The schedule doesn’t get any easier for Saranac Lake in its next match, which will be on the road Saturday at Beekmantown starting at 11 a.m.

“We have to work on winning those little battles within the game,” Wamsganz said.