It’s hard to win in soccer, or any sport, if you don’t score.

The Waterloo High School girls soccer team’s suffocating defense is making it tough for opponents to do just that this season.

The Bulldogs have won six straight games to improve to 13-2 on the season. In fact, Waterloo has not allowed a goal during the current winning streak and has only given up five goals the entire season.

Following conference wins last Tuesday and Wednesday against Civic Memorial and Highland, both shutouts, the Bulldogs traveled to Carbondale to compete in a Carbondale tournament over the weekend.

Waterloo defeated Marion, 1-0, on Friday and topped Cape Notre Dame and Carbondale, both by 2-0 scores, to win the Fralish Cup.

“Overall, I think we played some great defense throughout the tournament,” Waterloo head coach Chad Holden said. “We only let up five shots on goal over the entire three games.”

Holden praised the recent play of his core defensive unit — Sydney Ratz, Sierra Berg, Dani Maurer and Heather Elliott — as well as Sidney Metzger and Sydney Bockhorn.

“They have come up huge for us,” Holden said. “Our goalies, Kat Finnerty and Kate Kennedy, have also come up big when needed.”

Waterloo followed up its successful weekend with a tough 1-0 win over conference foe Highland on Monday.

Sydney Luedeman scored the game’s only goal. She has scored six goals over the past six games.

Last year’s leading scorer, Erika Lloyd, has also found the net often this season. She has scored four goals over the past six games.

Waterloo plays at Mascoutah on Thursday and at Belleville East on Friday.

Other local soccer action

Gibault has climbed back to the .500 mark with two straight wins.

The Hawks (5-5) posted a 4-0 win on Thursday against Mascoutah, which was followed by a dominating 7-1 win against Wesclin on Monday night.

The team’s scoring leader, Abby Hasenstab, scored seven goals in those two wins, including six goals Monday night.

Carley Olson scored two goals in the Mascoutah win.

The Hawks played at O’Fallon on Tuesday and will host Althoff at Oerter Park in Columbia this Saturday night.

Columbia dropped a hard-luck contest against Cor Jesu, 2-1, in overtime last Wednesday.

Casey Wood scored the lone goal for the Eagles, who dropped to 5-4 on the spring with the defeat. Lauren Kaempfe leads the team in scoring with eight goals and five assists this season.

Columbia played at Mascoutah on Tuesday and at Nerinx Hall on Thursday.