The Helias Crusaders had several good runs at the start of Tuesday night's soccer game with Quincy (Ill.) Notre Dame, but just couldn't come up with enough connections to make them pay off.
The Raiders had no such trouble.
Quincy Notre Dame scored on three of its four first-half shots - taking a 3-0 lead into halftime - and eventually scored five goals on their first seven shots in the contest. The Raiders eventually cruised to a 6-0 win at the 179 Soccer Park in a game Helias coach Michael Metzger said was much closer than the final score showed.
"I don't think the 6-0 score reflects how we played the game tonight, I really don't," he said. "I thought we played with them for pretty much the whole game."
The Crusaders outshot the Raiders 13-11 in the game, but Quincy Notre Dame put eight of theirs on goal, compared to just five for Helias.
More importantly, the Crusaders were just a pass away from coming up with several good chances when the game was in doubt in the first half.
"We had a tough time connecting stuff in our offense third," Metzger said.
Quincy Notre Dame got the game's first goal 61/2 minutes in when Colby Kapp won the ball on a scramble in front of the Helias goal and lofted it over the goalkeeper's head.
But that's where it stayed until just 71/2 minutes remained in the half when the Raiders added a goal by Zack Vahlkamp, and they got another with 4 minutes left in the half when Cole Hayes raced past everyone to track down a long ball and put it home.
That was a precursor of things to come in the second half, as all three of the Raiders' goals came when they used their speed to outrace the Helias defense to deep balls before scoring on easy chances.
"They had some great finishing plays," Metzger said.
Hayes scored 13 minutes in to make it 4-0, Vahlkamp got his second with 24 minutes left and Kyle Dickerman scored with 181/2 minutes remaining.
"We're coming out and competing against quality teams like QND," Metzger said. "Once we start doing that consistently, there's no telling what's going to happen. ... Playing against teams like this, you certainly have to capitalize on the opportunities you have. If you don't, that might be the dffernece between winning and losing a game."
Helias, which dropped to 6-6 with the loss, returns to action Thursday at Rolla.
"Right now, in this transition year, I'm not concerned with the win-loss record. It doesn't mean anything to me," Metzger said. "As long as the players are buying in to what I'm trying to do and we keep getting better every day and keep competing, then we're going to get where we want to be. It's only a matter of time."
Helias rolled to a 6-0 win in the JV game.
Elliott Lammers had two goals for Helias (5-4), while Jack Rundle had one goal and two assists. Carson Mudd had one goal and one assist, Jacob Frank had two assists and Carter Toebben and Logan Pfenenger had one goal each.
Elijah Korenberg got his first shutout of the season in goal.