Lady Cavaliers hold off Republic in Shootout finale

It was a day to learn.

"We have to figure out a way to come out and click under pressure," Capital City soccer coach Travis Cairer said after the Lady Cavaliers finished 1-1 in the Lady Jay Shootout at the 179 Soccer Park.

Capital City held off Republic 4-3 to win its second game of the day.

Brooklynn Green got the Lady Cavaliers on the board just six minutes into the contest, slotting a shot between the keeper and the post off an assist by Gia Pardalos.

Republic nearly tied the game about five minutes later when a long free kick caromed off the post.

Pardalos then tallied two goals in less than a minute midway through the opening half to extend Capital City's lead to 3-0.

The first came when the Republic keeper came far out of the net in an attempt to smother the ball. But Pardalos was able to flick it past her, then she ran onto it to tap it into the net. The second came just :30 later to give Capital City a three-goal lead at the half.

"We were doing decent things and were clicking," Cairer said.

Pardalos picked up the hat trick, scoring her third goal with a little more than 28 minutes left to make it 4-0. It's just the latest multiple-goal game for the sophomore forward, who hadn't been able to find the net in recent contests.

"In the last couple of games, we've had problems finding her in the right spaces," Cairer said. "We're getting good connections a lot of the time from our midfielders, but we just couldn't seem to get that last one to her feet."

But that goal covered up some problems Cairer saw from the start of the final 40 minutes.

"We just dropped off, we weren't focused from the very first whistle in the second half," he said. "We weren't going, our effort went way down, our intensity went way down.

"When we're ahead, we need to continue to put it to teams."

After Pardalos' third goal, Republic scored twice in the next 10 minutes to cut the deficit in half at 4-2. The Lady Tigers then got their final goal with 1:51 remaining.

"They started to turn up the pressure and that caused us some problems," Cairer said.

Pressure was on full display against Capital City in Friday's first game, a 4-0 loss to Kirkwood.

"They were all over the place, pressuring us non-stop," Cairer said. "I hate excuses, this is not an excuse, but I think that's the best team we've played this season."

Kirkwood led 3-0 at the half.

"We need to learn how to play against that type of speed," Cairer said. "We just don't want to defend, we want to attack against that speed and pressure.

"When they're pressing hard, we have to be prepared for what we're going to do with the ball and use that to our advantage. But it was just a lot of passing and standing for us, we weren't connecting.

"We need to get some quality soccer in those situations, we didn't have a lot of it in that game."

Capital City (11-5) will play three games next week, starting Monday at School of the Osage. They will host Southern Boone on Thursday before heading next Saturday to Springfield to take on Kickapoo in a late addition to the schedule.