LePage, Lochhead combine for early goal as Lady Jays beat Lady Tigers

The chemistry is strong on the field between Jefferson City teammates Tayler LePage and Mackenzie Lochhead.

It took the pair less than two minutes to show that Tuesday against Sedalia Smith-Cotton.

“I know I’ve said this before, but they play so well together,” Jefferson City coach Tom Guinn said after the Lady Jays blanked the Lady Tigers 4-0 at the 179 Soccer Park. “They aren’t selfish, they combine well and they both can finish.”

On the goal, LePage fed Lochhead the ball near the top of the box. Lochhead then drove toward the goal and lined a shot past the Smith-Cotton keeper.

Jefferson City has been adept at scoring early in recent games.

“I guess we’re a quick-scoring team, we’ve been pretty consistent with it,” Guinn said. “It’s not something we emphasize, but if we can do it, we’ll take it.”

The Lady Jays doubled their lead about eight minutes later. LePage had the honors, assisted by McKenzie Gourley.

From there, Smith-Cotton played Jefferson City relatively even for most of the rest of the half.

“A lot of teams will just give up when you score that early, but Smith-Cotton didn’t,” Guinn said.

Jefferson City made it 3-0 with less than a minute to go before halftime when Taylor Burkhead scored off an assist by Grace Haarmann.

“It’s getting more and more difficult to keep (Burkhead) off the field,” Guinn said of the freshman. “It seems every time she gets on the field, she’s finding the back of the net. When she gets an opportunity, she doesn’t miss.”

The Lady Jays got their final goal early in the second half when Katie Tambke scored on a liner, assisted by Morgan Jordan.

“There was no doubt about that shot,” Guinn said.

Guinn said he was a little surprised by the final margin on the scoreboard.

“Smith-Cotton finished the game strong, they did not roll over,” Guinn said. “We didn’t think this game would turn out this way, they’ve had some good wins this season and we’re pleased to get this result.”

Megan Duffield got the shutout in goal for Jefferson City. It may have been her last start for a while as Megan Foster is scheduled to return from an injury in tonight’s contest at Hickman.

“She played very well,” Guinn said. “She more than stepped up to the plate, she did a great job when we needed her to play.

“She is what we have in the future and I’m not worried about our future. She made such great progress since we just had to throw her in there.”

Despite Tuesday’s earlier wet weather, Jefferson City (13-3) wanted to get the game in against potential district opponent Smith-Cotton (10-5-1).

“District seeding implications were important for this game,” Guinn said.

The Lady Jays are 2-0 against district foes heading into tonight’s game against the Kewpies in Columbia.

“If we can do what we need to do against Hickman, we should be in the driver’s seat for the district No. 1 seed,” Guinn said. “This was big for us when you look at the big picture going forward.”

In Tuesday’s JV game, Jefferson City dropped a 3-1 decision to Smith-Cotton.