BEAVERTON — Day by day, game by game, and player by player, the Valley Catholic boys soccer team is just working to get better.

The Valiants showed off that improvement on Tuesday against Portland Christian, and while it didn't result in a victory — Valley dropped a 3-0 decision to the Royals at Valley Catholic High School — the improvement was still undeniable.

The loss sent VC's record to 1-4-0 in District 1 play (2-7-0 overall), while Portland Christian improved to 4-1-0 (8-3-0 overall) and remained in a second-place tie with Riverdale.

“It was way better than last time,” said senior midfielder Zach Holden. “The defense stepped up and we cut the score in half (from the two teams' first meeting), which was good for us.”

“I think we played a lot better than before,” agreed sophomore forward Sean Lee. “We talk a lot more than before. We're improving a lot.”

The Royals came on strong at the start of Tuesday's game and cranked out 14 shots in the first half, but the Valiants' defense provided enough obstruction that only three of those shots were on goal. But Portland Christian made sure that one of those found the net, with senior Solomon Blashishin taking a chip pass from Jin Kang in the middle of the VC penalty box and sending a hard shot toward the left post that Valiant keeper Joe Coucher deflected, but couldn't stop, for a 1-0 lead with 9 minutes, 11 seconds to go in the first half.

Valley Catholic couldn't match PC's offensive pace in the first half, but did create a couple strong chances. The first of those was a Joey Raulino shot set up by a Lee run two minutes into the half. After that came a long run and shot by Holden 16 minutes before the half, and three Holden shots in the final 3:50 of the period.

Portland Christian came on strong again at the start of the second half, but VC and Coucher weathered the storm, survived three shots on goal in the first eight minutes, then took control for most of the next nine.

During that stretch, Lee just missed a header off a Holden throw-in, Lee misfired high from the right side after a strong run, Lee and Chris Johnson very nearly deflected a Holden throw-in into goal, Lee missed right again, and Holden's hard shot was stopped by PC keeper Austin Rogers with 23 minutes left to play.

But Valley's hopes of forging a tie fell by the wayside when the Royals got the second of their three goals, this one when Jess Cayetano made a long run up the center of the field, worked past five different VC defenders, then rebounded his own shot and scored at the left post to make it 2-0 with 22:01 left to play.

The Royals were back in goal 6:04 later when Gabe Benfield headed home a Drew Dayton free kick and PC had its final 3-0 margin.

Still, the Valiants kept battling and kept trying to get ion the scoreboard, Lee with a dangerous free kick with 19 minutes remaining, Holden setting up an Armand Rabii volley that missed right with nine minutes to go, and finally, a hard left-footed Holden shot that Rogers saved with seven minutes to go.

“They are obviously the better team, they have the better record, but I feel like we're growing as a team,” Holden said. “Our midfield played well and we were passing great and our forwards did pretty well.”

“Me and Zach, we know when we can score, but their defense was pretty good,” Lee added. “They're mostly seniors and they're more experienced than us.”

In upcoming games, Valley Catholic plays at Riverdale at 4:15 p.m. Friday, then hosts Corbett at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday.