The Helias Lady Crusaders had a pretty good idea of what they were going up against.
The St. Joseph Academy Angels entered Thursday's contest at the 179 Soccer Park having finished third or better in the state tournament in each of the past five seasons.
After their performance Thursday, it looks like it wouldn't be out of line to pencil in a sixth.
"We embraced the challenge tonight," Helias coach Brad Dempsey said after the Angels scored six unanswered goals in a 6-1 victory against the Lady Crusaders. "We know how good a program St. Joe's has been. They're at a level higher than all but a handful of teams in Missouri.
"That's a level we want to be at, the girls want that, the coaches want that. That's why we play them. I'd rather play them than do that to somebody who may not be as good as us."
The Lady Crusaders needed a little more than a minute to get on the board.
Reese Hamilton took a pass on the left side of the goal, spun to get away from an Angel defender, then lined a shot with her left foot into the far corner to give Helias the early lead.
"It was a great individual play," Dempsey said. "We have a lot of players on this team that can do that, it's just a matter of doing it at practice and having the confidence we can do things like that in a game.
"That showed that we weren't scared of them, we wanted to play right from the start."
The remainder of the first half turned into the Maria Haro Show.
The Angels sophomore tied the game with 31 minutes on the clock, then give the visitors the lead for good about 15 minutes later when she scored on a rebound.
Maro's third goal of the first half came with 13:49 on the clock, assisted by Gabby Lawlor, as the Angels took a 3-1 advantage into intermission.
Maro scored again a little less than two minutes into the second half to make it 4-1. She, along with a lot of the starters on the offensive side, went to the bench not long after that.
"We have tremendous respect for that program, those girls flat out play hard," Dempsey said.
The Angels' final two scores came from Paige Balota with 25 minutes to play and Mallory Holzer with 13 minutes left.
Dempsey credited his team for playing hard, but may have gotten a little timid on the offensive end as the contest wore on.
"We were making passes just to get rid of the ball and we know we can't do that," he said.
St. Joseph's Academy is now 2-0 on the season.
Helias (1-1) is back in action today at Quincy (Ill.) Notre Dame.
In Thursday's JV game, St. Joseph's Academy topped Helias 3-0.