No athlete for the Colorado Springs Switchbacks needs a motivational halftime speech.

Coach Alan McCann said as much and his players demonstrated that in their tilt against Lexington SC on Saturday.

McCann watched as his players battled back for a 1-1 tie at Weidner Field after Khori Bennett netted a penalty-kick goal in the 79^th minute.

“The beauty about this group is they’re not a group that needs yelling and screaming,” McCann said. “They’re not a group that needs a fire lit under them. There’s consistently fire but it doesn’t always click how you want it to click. (In the second half) there was more intent about making them defend more. We didn’t do enough of that in the first half. We were very predictable, very slow and very side to side. That’s what we showed (in the first half.)”

Lexington (1-2-2) found the net in the 11^th minute as Xavier Zengue struck and helped his team to a 1-0 lead. Although the Switchbacks matched Lexington’s three first-half shots, none were on goal and Colorado Springs didn’t manage a shot on goal until the 51^st minute.

“We weren’t threatening at all and they were there for the taking,” McCann said. “In the second half, we were way more threatening, and you could see them scrambling and there were a few chances we left out there.”

The Switchbacks’ (1-2-2) attack looked sharper in the second half. They finished with 11 total shots and three on goal against Lexington’s defense that stymied their push in the opening 45 minutes.

Bennett’s boot helped the Switchbacks knot the contest late in the match. While Lexington SC scored 11 minutes into the match, they committed a foul that set up a penalty kick for Bennett with 11 minutes remaining.

“The PKs are my responsibility and I step up each time for the team and try to deliver,” Bennett said. “I have to give credit to my teammates who are winning the PKs and put the defense under some pressure.”

Bennett sent Lexington SC goalkeeper Oliver Semmle diving to the left while the forward’s shot bolted toward the back right of the net.

“If that’s how we’re going to score goals for now,” Bennett said, “we’re not satisfied with that, but it’s another way of scoring goals and we’ll take them.”

Bennett said surrendering a goal early “was disappointing” but, as McCann noted, Switchback players motivate themselves. Bennett said players stuck together and made “tactical adjustments” to recover in the second half.

“You could see we were more on the front foot and (had) more attempts on goal,” Bennett said. “Once we continue to do that, I think the goals will continue to flow for us.”

The Switchbacks return to the pitch April 14 to host Major League Soccer’s Sporting Kansas City at 6 p.m. in the round of 32 of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. McCann said they’ll use the bye week to reset.

“We’ll have these lads recover (and) get back to a level playing field where they’re not overused and then we’ll have a full squad to pick from,” McCann said. “… We had to play (Matt) Mahoney at right back and you very rarely see Mahoney out there. So this is a reset time.”