BLUE SPRINGS - The St. Teresa's Academy Stars are so good, they're the top-ranked girls soccer team in the nation.
And at least one person thinks they're good enough to leave the girls behind and start playing a different kind of opponent.
"I know that this is a crazy, arrogant statement to make, but I promise you they could beat a lot of high-school boys teams," Jefferson City coach Eddie Horn said. "They're so athletic, so good on the ball, so well-coached, they're just a handful."
That handful blanked the Jefferson City Lady Jays in a Class 3 semifinal game Friday at Blue Springs South High School, winning 5-0. They didn't stop there, as the Stars also blanked the Lady Jays in the shot totals, holding a 19-0 edge.
"Obviously there's a reason why St. Teresa's Academy is No. 1 in the nation, and we got to see it up close and personal today," Horn said.
The Stars set the tone early, racking up six corner kicks in the game's first six minutes. While none of them translated into a goal, a message had been sent.
"They lost in this game last year with the same group of girls," Horn said. "... They came out with some attitude, saying, "We're not going to be arrogant and look past that game again,' and they started the game like that. They had a little edge, a little nastiness to them."
The Lady Jays, bidding for their 20th shutout of the season, kept the Stars off the board for almost 12 minutes. But with 28:02 left before halftime, a 35-yard blast by Savannah Trujillo floated perfectly over the outstretched hands of the Jefferson City keeper for a goal.
"We thought we had a plan coming into it, tried to keep it close, a little conservative and then we gave up the first one on a floater," Horn said. "What are you going to do? You knew we were in trouble then."
The Lady Jays then tightened up and kept the Stars off the board for the next 18 minutes. But in the midst of that span, with 16:01 left before halftime, the Lady Jays' leading scorer went down with an ankle injury.
"One thing that killed us was Sarah Luebbert getting hurt," Horn said. "We never even got the opportunity to move her forward to get a chance to create, because we wanted to just kind of weather the storm early and then move her up."
The Stars closed out the first half with two goals in the final 10 ½ minutes.
Jefferson City kept St. Teresa's scoreless for almost 20 minutes in the second half before the Stars scored their final two goals in a span of 2:22.
"I felt we were really prepared, I had some cautious optimism, I thought we had the team set up right," Horn said. "I thought, "We can hang in and maybe frustrate them and maybe break out.' But they were just too much.
"I am proud of the team for hanging in, especially in the second half. We just said, "Let's go play. If it's two or 20 (goals), it doesn't really matter at this point.'"
Horn added getting the team ready for today's third-place game at 4 p.m. at Blue Springs High School against Francis Howell North (17-16-1) might be a tough task.
"When we brought the boys (to state) in "98, no one really felt like coming out to play in the consolation game, so it will be tough," he said. "We'll just try to find our focus."