Lady Jays roll past Waynesville in soccer

With the start of the soccer postseason just around the corner, the Jefferson City Lady Jays may have added a potentially potent weapon to their offensive attack.

“We haven’t been a team this year that has scored off free kicks,” Lady Jays coach Tom Guinn said after Friday night’s 7-1 victory against the Waynesville Lady Tigers at the 179 Soccer Park. “We usually put it over the top or miss our target or don’t challenge in the air.

“But for some reason, tonight we scored and seemingly converted on all of them. It was kind of bizarre, but maybe it’s something we have to look forward to moving on.”

Jefferson City’s first goal came in the run of play when Kenzie Gourey took a through pass from Tayler Lepage and beat the Waynesville keeper for the goal.

But that lead was short-lived as Waynesville answered about a minute later on a breakaway to tie it at 1.

Even after Jefferson City regained the lead when LePage found the lower right corner of the net on a penalty kick midway through the half, Guinn still didn’t like what he was seeing on the field.

“We weren’t playing well at all,” Guinn said.

That frown turned upside down in the next 10 minutes, compliments in no small part to Katie Tambke.

• Tambke first booted a corner kick to the far side of the Waynesville net where Greta Haarmann went up to head it in to make it 3-1.

• On a free kick, Tambke again put the ball near the Waynesville goal and Gourley headed it in and it was 4-1.

• On the next corner kick, Tambke again put it at the net and Sarah Hirst headed it into the goal to make it 5-1.

• With the Jefferson City bench imploring her to take it herself, Tambke knocked another free kick into the goal herself and it was 6-1.

“She’s capable of doing things like that,” Guinn said. “She’s dangerous in multiple ways, she’s physical, she can drop free kicks right on the spot, she can make good moves on her own.

“You don’t encourage players to be too selfish, but sometimes, we encourage her to be that way.”

Up by five goals, Jefferson City played a possession game at the start of the second half. But Guinn decided to let his team play its normal style about 15 minutes into play and LePage almost immediately picked up her second goal of the night to round out the scoring.

“Maybe we’re starting to click at the right time and this is definitely the right time to be clicking,” Guinn said.

Jefferson City finished with a 25-2 edge in shots, including a 17-2 bulge in those on net against Waynesville (8-11-2).

Jefferson City (17-4-1, ranked No. 10 in Class 4 by the Missouri High School Soccer Coaches Association) closes the regular season at Kickapoo.

“That is going to be a very good test for us to close out the regular season,” Guinn said.

The Lady Jays are the No. 2 seed in the District 11 Tournament which begins Tuesday, May 17, at Rock Bridge. Jefferson City will play the host school in the semifinals of the four-team tournament. Top-seeded Hickman and fourth-seeded Sedalia Smith-Cotton will square off in the other semifinal.

The district title game will be Thursday, May 19.

In Friday night’s JV game, Jefferson City defeated Waynesville 4-1.