With a new program, there will always be growing pains.

The Trinity Episcopal soccer team has seen that all season.

Despite flashes of strong play, the Saints (0-3) fell Thursday night in their first home game of the season in a 5-2 loss to Copiah Academy.

The Colonels struck early and often in the first half, scoring four goals to build a 4-0 lead at the break.

Chas Moroney finally answered for Trinity in the game’s 50th minute, scoring on a breakaway goal to put the Saints on the board.

Copiah would answer back, however, stretching the lead to 5-1.

Trinity would score again in the game’s final minutes on a free kick by Blaine Misita to provide the final score.

Saints head coach Scott Hanson, a Trinity alum currently on a soccer scholarship at Co-Lin, said the team had shown improvement over the course of the game and the first three games of the season.

“Yes, actually, there was a lot (of improvement),” Hanson said. “We got kind of a late start because of football season, and we’re just doing the best we can.”

After the sour first half, the Saints outscored the Colonels in the second, and played toe-to-toe with them for much of the game, and Hanson said much of that came with stepping up the defensive pressure.

“I feel like we made some changes (defensively) at halftime and that made a difference,” he said.

With plenty of time remaining in the season, and Hanson now home in Natchez while attending the local Co-Lin branch, he said he expects the team to continue to improve.

“It’s going to be a lot of time and effort,” he said. “During the fall I wasn’t able to do as much with them since I was in Wesson, but now I’m here so I can put more into this. It’s just going to take some time and effort.”