Good teams will take advantage of any mistakes.
The Visitation Academy Vivettes did that Tuesday night, scoring on a pair of defensive lapses by Helias in a 2-0 victory against the Lady Crusaders at the 179 Soccer Park.
"We didn't make them earn their goals and that's disappointing," Helias coach Brad Dempsey said.
The Vivettes needed a little more than a minute to get on the scoreboard. Helias keeper Ashley Rehagen made a stop on a shot, but the rebound found its way to Kayleigh Stahlschmidt and the Northwestern signee tapped it in for a goal.
"Our mindset isn't where it needs to be at the start of games," Dempsey said. "I don't know what we have to do to change that."
The Lady Crusaders recovered from the early blow and had the better of play for the next 20 minutes against the Vivettes and it looked like the momentum was on Helias' side.
But then midway through the half, Jaimie Tottleben of Visitation took the ball just inside midfield. She drove toward the Helias net before drilling a long shot into the far corner of the net to give the Vivettes a 2-0 advantage.
"In the past, there have been games like this against an opponent like this where it's been defend, defend, defend," Dempsey said. "We don't play like that anymore. We are playing toe-to-toe with quality teams, there are just a couple of things we have to fix."
The Lady Crusaders kept the score at 2-0 before regrouping at the half.
Helias was close to getting on the scoreboard early in the second half when Reese Hamilton dribbled toward the Visitation net and released a shot Vivettes keeper Kat Zaber had to reach behind herself to stop.
That was the first of four shots on goal for Helias in the second half.
"We played a very good second half," Dempsey said.
Visitation is now 6-5 on the season.
The Lady Crusaders are battling through some injuries to their starters, but Dempsey said that doesn't matter.
"We're not going to make excuses, somebody else has to step in and we have talented players in our program that can do that," he said. "We have good enough players to fill the holes and succeed.
"When we piece things together, it's going to be great. Some teams never do, but I believe this one will."
It was the first of three home games this week for the Lady Crusaders (6-9). Helias will host Father Tolton on Thursday and Kirkwood on Saturday. Six of Helias' final seven regular-season games will be played at the 179 Soccer Park.
In Tuesday's JV game, Helias topped Visitation Academy 3-2. Lainy Lamb, Lanie Hentges and Grace Winegar scored goals for the Lady Crusaders. Alisha Berhorst had an assist for Helias, which had just 12 players dressed for the game.