The Helias boys soccer team came out a little flat against the Battle Spartans on Monday night, which maybe shouldn't have come as a surprise.
"We started out slow," Helias midfielder Braden Remmert said. "I think we underestimated them a little bit and played flat. It might be because we were off school today. Driving (to the 179 Soccer Park) from home is kind of different than driving here from school.
"(On days where school isn't in session), most of the time you're just groggy because you sleep late, and then you get too much sleep, and then you don't do enough during the day, aren't active. We definitely played a lot better in the second half."
Remmert was the catalyst for three second-half goals as the Crusaders turned a tie at 1 into a 4-1 victory.
Helias coach Michael Metzger said the better second half resulted from the Crusaders listening to what he'd been saying all game long.
"I think the effort and the intensity and the talk was a lot better in the second half," he said. "If you do the things we ask you to do, then you can come out and score three goals.
"... I asked them after the game, "What was different in the second half?' "Well, we went harder.' "We were more intense.' "We talked more.' And I said, "Exactly. Why can't we do that the whole game? Why can't we do that from start to finish?'"
One thing the Crusaders did from start to finish was dominate the stat sheet. They had the better of play in both halves and ended up with edges of 27-7 in shots, 16-4 in shots on goal and 10-1 in corner kicks.
Still, it was the Spartans who got on the board first, as Omar Hayes took advantage of the Crusaders being slow getting back on defense to put one home. With the scoreboard inoperative all night, it was tough to tell exactly when the score came, but it was close to 10 minutes in.
About 12 minutes later, Helias knotted it when Luke Mercurio scored off a cross from Grant Stokes.
At the break, the Crusaders led in shots (13-3), shots on goal (6-2) and corners (5-1), but found themselves tied.
Remmert, who had served up a number of nice corner kicks in the first half to no avail, finally connected with someone when Brad Kemna headed one home about eight minutes in to the second half.
"It's frustrating when you get all those corners and you only get a few on target," Remmert said. "That score definitely got us going. We were definitely frustrated, but that goal helped pick us up."
And by contrast, it seemed to deflate the Spartans.
"Once we got that second one, we kind of took the wind out of their sails a little bit and were able to get a couple more," Metzger said.
The next one came less than a minute later. After Remmert uncorked a shot that rammed into the crossbar, Stokes headed in the rebound for a 3-1 lead.
With roughly 12 minutes left to go, Remmert got into the scoring column when he ripped a low, left-footed kick past the Battle keeper.
"It was a perfect shot in the corner," Remmert said. "I just wanted to get it on target at that point. There was a guy in the box and the goalie dove, so if he would have gotten a hand on it, he maybe would have knocked it right to him. Any shot on target was definitely a good shot."
The final margin could have been even bigger, but a few other shots found the crossbar and a couple of others just narrowly missed wide.
"If we can create chances like that, that's a start," Metzger said. "Are we going to do that against everybody on our schedule? I don't know. But being able to do it is important, because then it just starts coming naturally."
Helias (6-3) returns to action against Sedalia Smith-Cotton at 5 p.m. Friday in the Capital City Invitational.
In the JV game, Helias rolled to a 7-0 victory as Carson Mudd had a hat trick.
Jacob Frank assisted on each one of Mudd's goals, and he also had an assist on a goal by Logan Pfenenger.
Also scoring once apiece for the Crusaders were Sean Foley, Jacob Ceglenski and Elijah Korenberg. Jack Rundle and Luke Mertens added assists.
Sam Verry got the shutout in goal for the Crusaders (4-4) in the game.