Two Hanover soccer teams who compete in the Manitoba Major Soccer League's 4th Division met on a picture perfect Wednesday night at the Steinbach Soccer Park.

"Weather like this is amazing," said Strikers central midfielder Eddy Noll shortly after their 4-3 loss to Sting. "Manitoba is always so windy and today there's not a breeze and it's hot. It was great. No mosquitoes yet - just run and play. We've had lots of subs so everyone gets to play. We rotate a little bit more with shorter shifts and everyone gets on the field."

The Strikers trailed 2-0 but took some momentum into halftime as they scored late in the first half to cut the deficit to 2-1.

An early second half goal extended Sting's lead to 3-1.

"We talked at halftime about defending a little bit better than the first half and not give them the first chance right away and within a minute they score again," said Noll. "After the fourth one, you're down by three and it's tough to comeback."

The Strikers did rally with two late goals but couldn't scored the equalizer.

"I don't know if the Sting got tired or if they chose to sit back a little bit because they had the lead," Noll said. "They gave us the field a little bit more, passing was a bit better. With passing there's more crosses and then you notice the result is generally a goal."

Zach Friesen had a pair of goals for the Sting while the rest went to Jeffrey Dueck and Mark Thiessen.

The Sting have five wins, two losses and one tie in the 4th Division.

Ronny Kehler, Eddy Boschmann and Greg Duerksen did the goal scoring for the Strikers who saw their record fall to two wins, five losses and one tie.

The Strikers began the season with four straight losses and were outscored 20-10.

"We don't have a lot of returning players from last year," answered Noll when asked about their slow start to the 2018 MMSL season. "That was kind of tough because before the first game started we didn't even know if we would have enough players. We barely made it with 11. We had a hard time. No subs and all new guys that have never played together in that formation. We're slowing getting used to each other and now with more players showing up, having subs helps a lot. The guys are getting to know each other a little better."

The Strikers next game is Saturday (3:30 p.m.) at the Steinbach Soccer Park against Winnipeg FC.

"Our goal is to get back into the middle of the table which I think is quite doable," said Noll. "There's lots of soccer left to be played. We're playing a little bit more and with having the subs we noticed we're losing games or tieing games or winning games but they're all tight, rather than losing by a bunch of goals like we had in the beginning of the season. We're hopeful. Our heads are up, they're not down and we'll take it from there."