With the Helias attack having a decided advantage in time of possession and a stifling defense getting it back to the offense the few times it did surrender it, the Crusaders were never in danger of losing Tuesday night's Class 3 sectional soccer contest.
The only question was how bad the Crusaders would beat the Marshfield Blue Jays.
The answer turned out to be 4-0, as Helias earned a spot in the quarterfinal round after a dominating performance at the 179 Soccer Park.
Marshfield had just two shots in the first 70 minutes of play - both on goal and both saved by Helias defenders - and even after the Blue Jays had some success late against the Helias reserves, the Crusaders ended up with whopping advantages of 22-6 in shots in 11-3 in shots on goal.
"This is probably my fault, but my defense doesn't get the credit they deserve," Helias head coach Michael Metzger said. "They're all hard-nosed players and they all go as hard as they can. Tonight they really came through for us."
After the first five minutes, when adrenaline seemed to take the touch away from the Crusaders and several passes went way long, they settled in. It paid dividends soon after when Grant Stokes notched the first goal a little more than seven minutes in.
About 13 minutes later, Nick Brandt lined a hard shot off a Marshfield defender that deflected into the goal.
The third different Crusader to score in the first half was Braden Remmert, who settled a nice pass from Logan Brauner and slotted it home with just 15 seconds left before intermission.
"To have that many dangerous players in your attack is going to be an advantage for you, obviously," Metzger said. "If we can keep getting our wing backs involved in the attack, too, which we did in the second half, then we're only going to be more successful."
At halftime, Helias had a 12-1 edge in shots, including 6-1 in shots on goal. The Blue Jays' only shot on goal in the half was saved by defender Sam Heckart in the midst of a crowd in the box.
Helias' final goal of the game came about six minutes after the break when Brandt made a pretty pass to Remmert, who dribbled through some traffic before coming up with the score.
In the second half, Helias had advantages of 10-5 in shots and 5-2 in shots on goal. Bradley Kemna, a defender, had the first save, and starting keeper Ben Mitan eventually left without having to make a save. His replacement, Sam Verry, made the Crusaders' only other save in the game's waning moments.
"I think there were 10-15 minutes in the first half where we really moved the ball well, while the second half was especially fun to watch," Metzger said. "We moved the ball, we swung the ball, we got into space, we did the things we were supposed to do. Now, we didn't get as many goals in the second half as we did in the first half, but it was better soccer."
The win improved Helias to 16-10, while Marshfield ends at 15-9-2.
"Every team that you come up against in the postseason is going to be a quality team, and Marshfield was a quality team," Metzger said. "They came out and they competed as well as they could, we just played well."
The Crusaders will host a quarterfinal game Saturday against Glendale (18-8), which beat Carthage 6-2 on Tuesday. A game time has not yet been determined.
"Our fan support was tremendous tonight," Metzger said. "I'm going to give a plug for my St. Martins family out there, I know a lot of them came out and I really appreciate that.
"The number of parents and the fans who came out, for them to come out and support our program is great. And to get a chance to do it two playoff games in a row is going to be a huge boost for us."