It wasn't that the Capital City Lady Cavaliers lost.
It was the way they lost.
"Rock Bridge deserved to win and there was no point tonight where we played like we deserved to win," Capital City coach Travis Cairer said after Thursday night's 4-0 loss to the Bruins in the Class 4 District 9 Tournament title game at the Crusader Athletic Complex.
"It wasn't like the ball didn't roll our way and we fought hard. That wasn't the case and that's the most disappointing part of it."
The Bruins dominated the title game from the start, totaling five corner kicks and five shots on goal in the first 10 minutes.
Cairer said it reminded him of the regular-season meeting between the teams, won 2-1 in double overtime by Rock Bridge. The Bruins got off to a strong start in that game as well before the Lady Cavaliers found their footing.
"We stepped up and started playing, we recognized we were capable of and deserved to be on the same field as them and we started to play better," Cairer said of the first meeting. "They still probably played better, but we had some chances and put some good things together.
"Tonight, we couldn't connect on anything out there. We were forcing everything, the defense was lackadaisical and lazy, not just our defenders, our defense. We were slow and sluggish and not putting effort in."
Rock Bridge got on the board 21 minutes into the game on a goal off a rebound by Izzy Cole. The Bruins then doubled their advantage with 8:28 remaining in the first half when Hannah Juengermann converted on a penalty kick after Capital City was called for a handball in the box.
The Bruins finished the half with a 14-2 edge in total shots.
Capital City bounced back from a 2-0 first-half deficit to defeat Helias in PKs in the district semifinal Tuesday. But there was no comeback Thursday night.
"I was waiting for that extra gear to kick in and it never came," Cairer said.
The Bruins extended their advantage to 3-0 a little more than two minutes into the second half when Madison Hendrshoot scored on a penalty kick after a Lady Cavaliers foul in the box.
Ayan Omar of the Bruins got the final goal of the contest with exactly 20 minutes remaining in the second half.
Rock Bridge finished with 21 total shots in the game to six for Capital City.
"It was a pretty disappointing effort, disappointing showing," Cairer said. "I don't know what it was."
Rock Bridge (10-11) advances to next Tuesday's sectional game against Kickapoo in Columbia.
Capital City ends its first varsity season at 16-7. A trip to the district final wasn't expected at the start of the season.
"I felt like we had a chance, but I didn't think it was a sure thing," Cairer said. "We did OK, we won some games, a couple that were big ones maybe we shouldn't have. But there were some we could have done better.
"But it was a good first year."