The St. Joseph Flyers aren’t there, but they’re getting closer.

The Flyers turned in a strong performance before falling to the Wheelersburg Pirates 5-2 Thursday in a soccer game.

“Our kids played a awesome game against a good and established program. We didn’t win, but we played really well,” said Flyers’ coach Sissy Clyse.

“Wheelersburg has 29 players and our kids made a very good showing. Ike Palmer didn’t score but he played an awesome game at forward. We did a good job covering the midfield.”

St. Joseph scored first on a goal by Eli Lewis off an assist by Levi Hopkins. Wheelersburg (7-2-1) came back to take a 2-1 lead at the half on goals by Tyler Hughes and Dillan Lewis.

The Pirates went up 3-1 on a goal by Dillan Lewis, but the Flyers answered with a penalty kick goal by Hopkins to trail 3-2.

Dillan Lewis and Kyle Brooks each scored goals as Wheelersburg pulled away.

The Flyers had 12 shots on goal and goal keeper Joseph “The Shoe” Unger racked up 18 keeper saves.

St. Joseph (3-4-2) hosts Northwest at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Wheelersburg 2 3 = 5

St. Joseph 1 1 = 2

First Half

SJ — Eli Lewis (assist Levi Hopkins)

Wh — Dillan Lewis

Wh — Tyler Hughes

Second Half

Wh — Dillan Lewis

SJ — Levi Hopkins (penalty kick)

Wh — Dillan Lewis

Wh — Kyle Brooks

Shots on Goal: Wheelersburg 10-7=17, St. Joseph 4-8=12. Keeper Saves: Wheelersburg 15, St. Joseph 18 (Joseph Unger).