Nothing is more frustrating for a coach to experience than having a talented team that just can’t seem to find ways to win.

The Mehlville Senior High School girls’ soccer team is loaded with talent, but its record of 5-11 with an 0-4 mark in Suburban West Conference play has head coach Scott Jackson frustrated.

“We’re not a 5-11 team,” Jackson told the Call. “We’ll play solid for 15 or 20 minutes and then have players go into a shell.”

The Panthers were “shell shocked” last week in a 5-0 loss to Cor Jesu in the first round of the Catholic Youth Council Tournament at the Anheuser-Busch Conference Center in Fenton.

Cor Jesu subdued the Panthers in the first two minutes of play April 23 with a goal, and then proceeded to score five goals in the first 18 minutes. But Mehlville stopped the bleeding from then on and proceeded to keep the Chargers from scoring throughout the second half.

“In the second half, they (Cor Jesu) didn’t sub out any of their starters,” Jackson said. “We finally came to play.”

The loss for Mehlville moved the Panthers into the consolation bracket where they faced Washington April 25.

Mehlville’s Brittany Shelton put the Panthers up 1-0 in the first half on a corner kick by Christy Capkovic. But the Panthers allowed the Blue Jays to rack up two goals in the first five minutes of the second half to fall behind 2-1.

The Shelton/Capkovic connection scored once again in the second half on another corner kick to tie the game at 2-2.

“We played beautiful soccer and then we went away from that game,” Jackson said. “They (Washington) came out in the second half and punched in two goals in the first five minutes.”

The two goals by Shelton were the junior midfielder’s second and third of the season.

“Brittany scored both of those goals on corner kicks from Capkovic,” Jackson said. “All of a sudden, she’s realized that she’s not playing up front and is really going for the ball.”

Washington’s Kristi Frick put in the game-winning goal for the Blue Jays to hand Mehlville its 11th loss of the 2007 campaign.

“What’s so disappointing is that we’re a talented team,” Jackson said. “We just can’t seem to put it all together.”

Mehlville is back in action at 7 p.m. to-day — May 3 — when the Panthers play Northwest in Suburban West Conference action at Oakville Senior High School.