KINGSTON — For Kingston fans, the first North End junior high rivalry of the year wasn’t as exciting as the final Cavs/Panthers softball contest last spring, but for the Poulsbo Junior Panthers it was a sweet toast to the start of the season.

After battling Central Kitsap to a 2-1 win in the opening game of the season, the Panthers traveled to Kingston and put together a 3-0 romp, 25-5, 25-12, 15-9.

“(That game) was really good because they are our rivals,” Panther freshman Laura Kelley said. “It’s not a lot of standing around, we’ve learned that you’ve got to be communicating and always moving and keeping your head in the game.”

The Panthers’ opened up in striking form with powerful serves and equally potent hits at the net combining for an impressively quick opening match. On the other side of the net, Kingston coach Su-A Stevens said her team was concentrating too much on the score and not enough on the game.

“They need to get their head out of the scores. They have this thing about Poulsbo that they can’t get out of their mind when they play,” Stevens said. “Just go out there and play. You’re not focusing on, ‘Oh my gosh we’re losing,’ you should be focusing on, ‘Alright, where’s my next play?’ and all of the things that we’ve put into practice.”

With nearly half of its varsity squad new to the court in 2006, Kingston has been focused, in practice, on the fundamental skills of the sport.

In the second game of their match up with Poulsbo Oct. 3, the Cavs picked themselves up, increasing their hustle to the ball on defense and their overall team attitude. Even so, the Panthers were unrelenting.

“We’ve got a good serving game and a talented group at the net who, if we can get (the ball) up to them, they are smart in their attack,” coach Amy Johnson said of what gave the Panthers the upper hand. “I’d always like to see more consistency, more consistency serving and more consistency getting the ball up to the net.”

With an array of decisiveness, the Panthers stormed over the Cavs attempts, flexing their way to the 25-12 win in the second game.

“(The Cavs) were able to pull their heads up in the second game, and then in the third game, they actually did well,” Stevens said.

The Cavaliers put together more of a fluid offense, finding a bump, set, spike rhythm in spots while staying vigilant on defense. But it wasn’t enough to out match the Panthers’ momentum; Poulsbo carried through to the 3-0 win on the match with a 15-9 final decision.

“One of the things we had talked about was staying intense and staying focused throughout the game, and we did that,” Johnson said. “We’ve put that as one of our goals this season, so we’ll just reiterate that and take each game as it comes.”

Thursday, Poulsbo once again put its diehard mantra into practice as the Sedgwick Generals traveled to the Panthers’ Den. In a match that Johnson qualified as “far and away the best three games we’ve put together this season.”

The Panthers beat the Generals 3-0 to improve to a 4-0 start of the season. Kingston traveled to Cedar Heights Oct. 5 but results were unavailable by press time at the Herald.