It's a good news-bad news situation.
The good? The Jefferson City Lady Jays have made a habit of scoring first in recent games. Taking the lead is never a bad thing in soccer. The bad? Things seem to slow down after that.
"It's got me worried," Lady Jays coach Matt Stacey said after Jefferson City topped the Kickapoo Lady Chiefs 2-1 on Monday at the 179 Soccer Park. "We score, then we seem to step back and put things on cruise control."
And with the district tournament starting next week, Stacey would like to see more of a sense of urgency.
"We need the killer instinct," he said. "This is not the time of the year for this to be happening. I'm happy we got the win, I'm happy with a lot of things, but this is a trend we need to stop.
"We're going to have a talk about it."
Cassie Jobe, one of three Lady Jays players honored on Senior Night, got Jefferson City on the board just three minutes into the game.
"I'm so happy for Cassie," Stacey said. "She is probably more proud to be on this team than anyone else and for her to score in her first varsity start is something special."
It wasn't as if the Lady Jays stopped playing after Jobe scored. Jefferson City finished with a 17-0 edge in shots in the first half, with 10 of those being on net. But ...
"A lot of those weren't threatening, most of them weren't dangerous," Stacey said. "It's one thing to knock the ball around, it's another to be dangerous. We have the talent to be dangerous."
The Lady Jays made it 2-0 about five minutes into the second half on a goal from Eden Hoogveld.
But that insurance went away five minutes later when Manon Kiein of Kickapoo scored on a long shot after a Jefferson City turnover. It was Kickapoo's first shot of the game.
"That seemed to get our attention," Stacey said. "But it shouldn't come to that, that should not be the motivation."
The Lady Jays, who finished with a 32-2 edge in total shots, had a pair of chances bounce off the crossbar in the final 25 minutes.
The win wrapped up an undefeated home season for the Lady Jays (13-3-1), who were 6-0 at the 179 Soccer Park. Jefferson City wraps up the regular season Wednesday at Rolla.
Jefferson City is the No. 1 seed in the Class 3 District 10 Tournament and will open against host Lebanon at 7 p.m. Monday. The championship is set for 6 p.m. Thursday.
"It's nice to have that No. 1 seed," Stacey said. "Now we have to back it up."
In Monday's JV game, Jefferson City dropped a 2-1 decision to Kickapoo. The Lady Jays JV is now 8-5-2.
III
Prior to the game, the Lady Jays honored the senior trio of Jobe, Abby VanConia and Bailey Hall.
"When you have a team full of freshman and sophomores, you have to count on your seniors to provide guidance and they have the respect of everybody on the team," Stacey said. "I love them to death.
"You play for the seniors because it takes a special kid to ride it out for four years. You don't see that many kids sticking it out."