Jaycie Johnson made her presence felt early. And often.
In the opening minutes of Saturday afternoon's game against the Helias Lady Crusaders in the Capital City Invitational at the 179 Soccer Park, the Lee's Summit West senior took the ball on a breakaway and lined a shot at the net.
Helias keeper Liz Czarnecki made a sprawling save to keep Johnson and the Lady Titans off the scoreboard. But that was just a indication of things to come as Johnson scored twice before intermission, then added three more goals in the second half as Lee's Summit West topped Helias 5-2.
"She's a nice player," Helias coach Brad Dempsey said. "We had trouble adjusting to her and her ability."
In Czarnecki's defense, well, it takes more than one player to play defense against a player as talented as Johnson, who will play next season at the University of Nebraska.
"She can't save them all," Dempsey said. "After that, (Johnson) was putting them in the corners and they weren't savable."
Johnson is not only quick, but more importantly, she's quick while she possesses the ball.
"She can make individual moves that can beat one defender," Dempsey said. "She can just make a cut on a dime, you have to have another defender ready and we didn't have that happen because our defense was retreating when she received the ball."
Helias jumped out to the lead about three minutes later. The score was set up by a nice hustling play by Jordan Poire down the right side to keep the ball in play.
"Jordan beats people down the wing, game-in and game-out," Dempsey said.
The ball eventually found its way to the top of the box, where Tiffany Weaver was waiting. The junior lined a shot over the outstretched hands of the Lady Titans keeper to make it 1-0.
"I'm excited for Tiffany to score like that," Dempsey said. "That should give her some confidence she can score from out there."
After Johnson tied it about 10 minutes later, Helias regained the lead on a corner kick when Taylor Hagenhoff found a leaping Becky Roberts for the score.
"Becky and Taylor have hooked up on plays like that against two of the best teams we've played this season," Dempsey said. "That was a great finish."
Johnson then tied it at 2 just before intermission, then accounted for all the second-half scoring. That came after Johnson scored three times in the first five minutes in Lee's Summit West's first game Saturday, a 9-0 victory against Westminster Christian,
"We can beat that team," Dempsey said. "We didn't handle (Johnson) today, but if we played again, we'd do a better job against her."
III
In Helias' first game Saturday, the Lady Crusaders defense was more than up to the task in a 4-0 blanking of the Springfield Catholic Fighting Irish.
"We controlled the game," Dempsey said, noting Helias did not allow a shot on goal in the contest.
The Lady Crusaders got goals from Haley Bax, Weaver, Roberts and Maddie Lammers.
Helias (8-5) is back in action Friday and Saturday at the Hickman Tournament.