The Jefferson City Lady Jays got the start they were looking for Thursday night at the 179 Soccer Park.
And it paid off with a victory.
Jefferson City scored just one second less than 10 minutes into the game and went on to post a 2-1 victory against the Battle Spartans.
"It's never easy, never easy," Jefferson City coach Joren Trimble said. "But it was a good win at home."
The Lady Jays had not gotten off to good starts in their first two games at 179 this season. But that changed Thursday night.
"We were moving the ball well, we were having some good off-the-ball movement as well," Trimble said.
That movement led to the opening goal when Bailey Day took a pass from Morgan Jordan down the right side and lined the shot into the net for the lead.
"It was nice to get on the board first and early," Trimble said. "Bailey has worked so hard and she's performing at a high level right now."
That was the lone goal of the first half.
It didn't take long into the second half for Jefferson City to double its lead. Halle Bohlken got the score off an assist by Kaitlyn Schwandtner a little more than two minutes in.
"Halle wanted to know all offseason what she could do to get better and she worked on those things," Trimble said. "She's stronger with the ball and that's showing up in her play."
Trimble believes Jefferson City still has room to improve on the offensive end.
"Can we think one step ahead of the opponent?," he asked. "We've been able to score in games this season, but I think we can still do better."
Battle put some drama back into the game when Madeline Schrader scored off a free kick with about 15 minutes remaining.
"That's our weakness right now, giving up goals on corners and set pieces," Trimble said. "But we're going to go back and look at our spacing, see where we're lining up to work on positioning."
But Jefferson City's backline of seniors Greta Haarmann and Jamie Rodiek, and sophomores Grafton Craighead and Delaney Kaiser, were able to keep Battle away from the net the remainder of the contest.
"They are starting to get more organized as a group and that should help us the rest of the season," Trimble said.
Battle (3-4) finished with just three total shots Thursday night. Jefferson City had 14 shots to go along with six corner kicks.
Jefferson City (7-5) will play today and Saturday at the Kickapoo Tournament in Springfield. The Lady Jays will open against Willard at 3 p.m. today. On Saturday, Jefferson City will take on Carl Junction at 8 a.m. and Glendale at 2 p.m.
"They are three quality teams," Trimble said. "We just want to get better every game."
Jefferson City will return home Tuesday against Hickman.