It's not too often you see a soccer team squeeze off a shot every two minutes, but that's exactly what the Jefferson City Lady Jays did Friday night.
The Lady Jays ended up with a 40-0 edge in shots, 19 of them on goal, while cruising to a 9-0 win against Fatima at the 179 Soccer Park.
The effort was just what the doctor ordered for the Lady Jays.
"We have been struggling in the final third, so it was good to see us maybe break the seal a little bit and see some girls other than Sarah Luebbert score," Jefferson City coach Eddie Horn said. "And she still got hers on a great goal, but it was great to see everybody stepping up. Maybe that will help our confidence as we enter the middle third of our season."
It didn't take long for those shots to start turning into goals, as Jefferson City got its first score just 1:19 into the contest when Eden Hoogveld gathered in a rebound of her own shot that hit the post and slotted it home.
A little more than 10 minutes later, Hoogveld was on the board again, heading in a nice cross from Kaley Ruff.
Hoogveld was one of the seniors honored on Senior Night, joining Becca Sturgess, Hannah Nikodym, Maddie Hall, Alyssa Shouse, Brianna Lock, Amber Krumm, Kourtney Betts and Kaley Ruff.
"It was a good night for the seniors, especially with Eden Hoogveld having the first two goals," Horn said. "It was nice that a lot of them were involved."
Then with 17:09 left, Jefferson City got its final goal of the opening half when Hall put one home off an assist from Natalie Vance.
At intermission, Jefferson City already had a 20-0 edge in shots, with nine of them on frame. It wasn't exactly the start Fatima was looking for.
"We played (Thursday) night and came in a little beat up, so we knew we were going to have a challenge," Fatima coach Kirby Keth said. "And we knew they were going to be an outstanding team."
After firing wildly on a number of shots to start the second half, the Lady Jays finally settled down and got a score 121/2 minutes in when Luebbert pounded a deep shot into the high left corner of the goal.
The lead became 5-0 when Tayler LePage made a nice sliding shot off a pretty cross from Mackenzie Lochhead. It was a nice reward for LePage, who helped picked up the team with her aggressive play early in the contest.
"You could tell as soon as we inserted her into the game in the first half, she changed the game immediately," Horn said. "She got to the end line four or five times in a row and made a pass with some speed."
Less than two minutes later, Ruff corralled the ball after a scramble and put it home for a 6-0 lead.
Jefferson City got its final three goals in the last six minutes of the game. With 5;42 left, Natalie Vance scored off an assist from Nikodym; Nikodym then scored unassisted with 3:28 left; and with 14 seconds remaining, McKenzie Gourley scored off an assist from Megan Foster, who got away from her normal spot in goal to play center mid.
"There's some people who look at this as us taking too aggressive an approach (by playing Jefferson City)," Keth said. "But if we can walk away and learn some things and grow from it, it's good.
"I saw a lot of good things our girls did. We had to play a different system and with playing (Thursday), we couldn't work on it much. We had to take more of a defensive approach ... and the girls played hard."
With the Lady Jays (5-3-2) returning the bulk of its team that finished third in the state in Class 4 last year, they posed a tall task for the Class 1 Lady Comets (3-5).
"In this group, I have one girl that plays club, the rest of them come in at the beginning of the year after playing one or two other sports," Keth said. "It's a challenge to go in knowing you're going to have to play some of the teams we do. I'm always proud of the girls and the effort they give. They don't back off. They don't give up."
Horn, whose team returns to action with home games Monday against St. Joseph's Academy and Tuesday against Hickman, said he appreciated Fatima agreeing to play.
"Kirby's good enough to play us," he said. "We really struggle to find teams in this area that are willing to play, other than the usual suspects. So this helps us out."