In the first five minutes of Thursday's game at the 179 Soccer Park, the Father Tolton Trailblazers had a good scoring opportunity turned away by the Jefferson City Jays.
Jefferson City coach Scott Blake didn't like what he saw, especially when the slow start turned into a pair of Tolton goals in a 2-0 loss to the Trailblazers.
"Our approach needs to be that we're down 2-0 at the start, that it's not an even game," Blake said. "We have to play like we have to prove something from the opening whistle.
"As soon as that whistle blows, we have to be ready to go."
The Trailblazers got on the board with 27:37 remaining in the first half on a goal by Nathan Schwartze. Tolton doubled its lead about six minutes later on a goal by Holden Petri.
"Anytime you're trying to dig out of a 2-0 deficit with a young team like we are, it's hard," Blake said.
Jefferson City came out of the halftime break with a lot more intensity. After getting just one shot on goal in the first half, the Jays had six in the final 40 minutes.
"We by far had the better of the chances, the better of the opportunities," Blake said. "We had the pressure we wanted.
"But when you get them, you have to convert on them and we didn't tonight."
Blake believes if Jefferson City could have got one goal, more likely would have followed.
"If you're up 2-0 and your opponent gets a goal, that can be a very dangerous time because you've just given your opponent a reason to play," Blake said. "I truly think if we would have gotten one, more would have come."
The Trailblazers were strong on the defensive end in the victory.
"They are very organized, they defend very well," Blake said. "They always have good cover, their secondary guys play for each other very well."
Blake saw improvement in his young team Thursday night.
"Outside the first 20 minutes, we were pretty good," Blake said. "We're getting better with the ball. We're better in the build up, it's just a matter of finishing."
Jefferson City defeated Tolton by a combined score of 8-0 in two meetings last season.
"They were young last year, we're young this year so the script was flipped," Blake said. "There might have been a little retribution, they came after us. I'm sure they wanted this one, they had it punched on their calendar."
Tolton is now 5-9-1 on the season.
Jefferson City (9-7-1) will host Helias on Monday. The JV game will start at 5 p.m., with the varsity contest to follow around 6:15 p.m.
In Thursday's JV game, Jefferson City blanked Tolton 3-0 in contest consisting of a pair of 20-minute halves.