This time, they didn't wait so long.
For the second straight home game, the Jefferson City Lady Jays took the lead with a goal in the first five minutes Friday night against the Waynesville Lady Tigers. But unlike Monday's win against Rolla, where it took nearly 70 minutes to get an insurance goal, Jefferson City scored two more times in the first half on its way to a 4-1 victory against Waynesville at the 179 Soccer Park.
"It won't hurt my feelings if we can make a habit of scoring those early goals the rest of the way," Lady Jays coach Tom Guinn said. "We've been a bit of a fickle team this year, which can be fun and stressful at the same time.
"I know we're down to basically the final week of the regular season, but hopefully this can be a momentum builder for us."
Jefferson City got on the board a little more than three minutes into the game. Tessa Sigmund got the ball in front of the Waynesville net, made a spin move and knocked a shot into the goal.
The Lady Jays doubled their advantage with 3:57 remaining in the half on a goal by Delaney Kaiser, assisted by Daelynn Scheulen. Kenzie Gourley made it 3-0 with an unassisted goal with 2:28 left before intermission.
"The girls deserve credit for playing all 40 minutes of the first half," Guinn said. "They could have been satisfied with the lead, but they weren't."
Jefferson City made it 4-0 a little less than nine minutes into the second half on an unassisted goal by Lexi Acock.
Waynesville got on the board with 6:40 remaining on a goal by Cristaliz Soto. That was one of just two shots on goal in the game for the Lady Tigers.
"We didn't get the shutout, but it was another really good game by our backs on the defensive end," Guinn said. "They've really been outstanding, especially in the second half of the season."
The win more than likely wrapped up the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Class 4 District 9 Tournament for the Lady Jay, who will host the four-team event later this month. Rock Bridge and Sedalia Smith-Cotton figure to be the No. 1 and 2 seeds, respectively, while Waynesville will be seeded fourth.
"This game had some meaning to it," Guinn said. "It's not set in stone, but I think everybody can figure out how everybody is going to be seeded."
The district tournament is tentatively scheduled to start Tuesday, May 15.
Jefferson City (9-13) is back in action Monday at Kickapoo. The JV game will start at 4 p.m., with the varsity to follow around 5:45 p.m.
In Friday's JV game, Jefferson City blanked Waynesville 6-0. Lindsey Ruff, Grace Craighead, Jadyn Pierce, Amaya Bell, Anna Spalding and Vanessa Guevara scored goals for the Lady Jays. Assists went to Craighead, Marina Azar, Pierce, Juli Fox and Maria Wilder.