The Capital City Cavaliers had their moments Tuesday night.
But so did the Camdenton Lakers, who defeated the Cavaliers 4-0 in the semifinals of the Class 3 District 9 Tournament at the Crusader Athletic Complex.
"We cannot walk away from this game thinking we didn't play well," Capital City soccer coach Travis Cairer said. "We had some good things going, but the wrong times were just a little too much for us."
The Cavaliers had the better of play for much of the opening 15 minutes, peppering the Lakers with repeated runs that turned into shots. But they couldn't get anything into the goal.
"We were doing some good things, it was just the final connection wasn't there," Cairer said. "And when the final connection was there, it was just going off the bar or the post or at the goalie.
"The final ball wasn't landing for us, that's the way it was for us a lot of the year."
Camdenton then took control of the game by scoring three times in a five-minute span later in the half.
The Lakers took the lead with 14:55 left in the half on a goal by Grant Thompson. A penalty kick from Josh Gerdiman with 12:25 remaining doubled the lead before an own-goal with a little more than 10 minutes on the clock made it 3-0.
The Cavaliers finished the first half with eight total shots, including five on goal.
Capital City had a chance to get on the board a little more than five minutes into the second half. But a penalty kick caromed off the cross bar and ensuing rebound was shot just wide.
Gerdiman got his second goal of the game with 15 minutes left to make it 4-0.
The Cavaliers had a shot go off the post in the final 30 seconds in a chance to avoid the shutout.
Capital City, the No. 3 seed in the district, ends its season at 6-15-1.
"We played a lot of really good games," Cairer said. "I think four or five of those were games that could have gone either way, a lot like this one."
It was the first varsity season for the Cavaliers, who had just freshmen and sophomores on the roster.
"It was youthful inexperience," Cairer said. "We're going to lose some of that next year."
Camdenton (12-12), the No. 2 seed, will take on top-seeded Helias (7-15-1) for the district championship at 6 p.m. Thursday.