Fresh off a season opener in which it scored five goals, the Helias soccer team turned it up a notch Tuesday night. Or two notches, to be accurate.
The Crusaders scored early and often while cruising to a 7-2 win against the Kirksville Tigers at the 179 Soccer Park. Helias scored in the opening four minutes of each half and never trailed in the game.
"Coming into the first part of the season, scoring 12 goals in our first two games, is it nice? Sure. Is it reality? No," Helias coach Michael Metzger said.
The game was less than four minutes old when Braden Remmert scored off an assist from Nick Brandt.
The Crusaders then kept peppering the Kirksville goalkeeper with shots, only to see the game tied at 1 when a turnover deep in the Helias zone was put home by the Tigers' Ethan Vorkink with 25 minutes left in the half.
"I would say in the first half, we weren't going hard enough to the ball," Metzger said. "It looked like some players were a little lackadaisical at times. I think the intensity throughout the whole game was a little off, which obviously is going to affect the tempo of the game."
The Crusaders took control back soon after, and with 19:31 left before halftime, Braden Remmert lifted a perfect corner to kick to Matthew Schulte, who headed it home.
Helias added two more before halftime. The first was by Brandt off an assist from Arris Pardalos, then Brandt and Remmert hooked up again, with Brandt sliding a pretty cross to Remmert, who slotted it home.
"To come back quickly and get a goal, then two more after (Kirksville's score), was impressive," Metzger said. "I liked the attitude of, "OK, come on, we need to get it together.' And they did that."
Despite having a 14-2 edge in shots, including 10-2 in those on goal, and an 8-0 advantage in corner kicks in the half, Metzger was looking for an improvement after intermission.
"I think the second half was better, especially the beginning of the second half," he said. "We switched some players around and put them back into some more familiar roles. In the first half, there were some players playing out of position, we were trying some things.
"Maybe that had an affect on them, but at the end of the day, soccer's soccer. It's pass and move, it's create space, it's get into that space. So if players were out of position, and that was an excuse, I'm not going to buy that. Every time we step on this field, it's 100 percent all the time."
Just 2:01 into the second half, Helias got a fortunate bounce to push the lead to 5-1. With Kirksville trying to clear the ball near its own goal, a Tiger lifted it toward Helias' Grant Stokes, who spun and jumped in an attempt to get out of the way. The ball hit him in the back, sending it back toward the goal, and it looped over the Kirksville keeper.
It stayed 5-1 until Sam Heckart's cross was headed in by Schulte with 18:59 remaining. Helias' final goal came with 16:04 left when Brandt hammered one home from roughly 20 yards out.
Kirksville got its final goal with 7:33 left on a penalty kick by Seger Nelson.
Helias ended up with edges of 24-8 in shots, 17-7 in shots on goal and 11-1 in corner kicks.
"I thought it was good in spurts," Metzger said. "I think there were some things that we did well and I think that there were things we need to really sit down and take a good, hard look at."
The Crusaders will play Friday and Saturday in the Midwest Soccer Classic hosted by Quincy (Ill.) High School. Helias will play games against Quincy, the C.B.C. "B" team and Rock Island (Ill.).
"Playing teams like that, that's really going to give us an indicator of where we're at right now," Metzger said. "It's still the beginning of the season and we have a long way to go."
In the JV game, Helias posted a 4-0 victory.
Carson Mudd had a pair of goals for the Crusaders (2-2), while Jack Rundle and Jacob Frank had one apiece. Frank added a pair of assists, while Rundle and Grant Mengwasser had one each.
Sam Verry made three saves in goal to record the shutout.