Giving up two goals in a little more than three minutes of play should have been a sign to the Helias girls soccer team it was in for a long day in the Capital City Shootout.
While things did get better for long stretches of play for the Lady Crusaders, the end result for Helias was a pair of losses by a combined score of 10-0.
The Lady Crusaders gave up two goals in the first 3:05 of play against Lee's Summit North, then held the Broncos scoreless for the rest of the first half, only to struggle in the second half of a 7-0 loss.
Helias then played to a scoreless tie for the first 45 minutes against Lee's Summit West, then gave up three goals in the final 35 minutes and lost 3-0 to the Titans.
It added up to a long day for the Lady Crusaders at the 179 Soccer Park.
"The results were very lopsided, but that's because those teams beat us that bad," Helias coach Brad Dempsey said. "One thing that we don't want to see is our girls lose confidence in their abilities, because it's there. They can do it, they're capable.
"We just have to have the desire to want to improve at practice and continue to gain that understanding of how to play the game."
Lee's Summit North, ranked sixth in the state in Class 4, outshot Helias 23-5 in the opener, including an edge of 13-1 in shots on goal. Lee's Summit West had advantages of 22-4 in shots and 10-1 in shots on goal.
"They're good," Dempsey said. "The level of soccer for both teams is higher than ours right now. Their understanding and their comprehension of the game, moving to and off the ball, connecting with teammates, it comes with practice and those girls are seasoned."
Helias (7-7-1) gave up a goal just 80 seconds into the opener, then gave up another just 1:45 later.
But the Lady Crusaders were able to right the ship and got to halftime down just 2-0.
Helias then had the better of play for the first seven minutes of the second half, only to have Lee's Summit North get on the board again after scoring on a breakaway.
It was one of several such scores for the Broncos, who scored again with at the 25:05 mark, then with 23:17 left, 17:27 remaining and finally with 2:37 left to go.
"There were at least 15-20 minutes of the game where we were moving the ball and controlling things," Dempsey said. "I don't know if it was the speed, or the pressure of the game, that got us frazzled. But from the moment when (Lee's Summit North) scored their first goal in the second half to the rest of the night, it was a struggle for us."
Lee's Summit North had a 14-2 edge in shots in the second half, including 8-0 on goal.
It was a similar story in the second game. Lee's Summit West outshot Helias 7-1 in the first half, just 3-0 on goal, but then upped those totals to 15-3 and 7-1 in the second half.
Dempsey said he never thought about trying to manage the scoreboard at any point in the night.
"At this point in the season, we're not going to come in and just play defensively because we're playing a great team," he said. "We're going to play them straight up and try to play the way we're trying to play. We're going to focus on doing what we want to be able to do when we get to the postseason.
"Could we have packed it in and tried to keep them from scoring goals and had a better result? Absolutely, there's no doubt in my mind. But that's not our focus. The focus is to be able to play with some of the best teams, to play the way they do, and we're not there yet."
Helias, which has several players nursing injuries right now, has to turn around and host Visitation Academy, the No. 4 team in Class 3, on Monday. The JV game will start at 4:30 p.m., with the varsity to follow around 6:15 p.m.
"This obviously wasn't a good time for us to have two games in one night, but it will all work itself out," Dempsey said.