It turned out to be worth the wait.
After a weather delay of just less than two hours, the Capital City Lady Cavaliers scored three goals in each half Friday in a 6-0 victory against the Branson Lady Pirates at Capital City High School.
“Literally never saw lightning, but it was in the area, so we had to wait,” Capital City coach Travis Cairer said.
While the rain, and lightning, was gone by game time, the contest was played in windy conditions.
“It affected a lot of things,” Cairer said. “It was crazy, we just harped on the fact we needed to work it on the ground as much as possible. We had to keep it low, but even when we kept it on the ground, there were times where the wind changed the path of the ball. It was just something no one could control and we had to deal with.
“We’d have a light breeze, then all of the sudden, there would be a 40-mph gust.”
Yani Clark got the Lady Cavaliers on the board six minutes into the contest, tapping in a precise cross from Georgia Pardalos.
Pardalos got a goal of her own six minutes later, lining in a shot from in front of the goal off an assist by Kaylee Loethen.
The Lady Cavaliers made it 3-0 with 5:25 to go before halftime when Clarke scored on a penalty kick.
“We built some decent attacks and mixed it up,” Cairer said.
The Lady Cavaliers increased their lead to 4-0 one minute into the second half on a goal by Pardalos, assisted by Amaura Austell. Tatum Barger drilled a free kick for a score midway through the second half to make it 5-0.
Kamryn Anthony capped the scoring on a goal off a rebound with a little less than four minutes remaining.
“We did a really good job of doing what we could to maintain our possession and keeping it away from the other team,” Cairer said.
It was a strong defensive effort for the Lady Cavaliers, who outshot the Lady Pirates 28-5 in the contest.
“They had opportunities going forward, but we did a good job of stopping what they had,” Cairer said. “The defenders and the wing backs did a good job of cutting them off. If they were going to get past us, they were going to have to do it from the outside. It’s easier to deal with them out there than from the top of the box.”
Natalie Allison and Aslyn Marshall shared time in goal in the shutout. Allison played the first 55 minutes, while Marshall closed the game and made a save on Branson’s lone shot on goal.
Capital City (4-0) will host Republic at noon today, while Branson will take on Sedalia Smith-Cotton at 10 a.m. in the first of two games at the high school.
There was no JV game Friday.