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NORTH JACKSON -- The Jackson-Milton soccer team was just a couple steps slow early on during Monday's contest.
The more-experienced LaBrae squad used that soccer knowledge to score three first-half goals, besting the Blue Jays 4-2 at Jackson-Milton High School.
"We're working on a new mentality around here," LaBrae head coach Isaiah Carmichael said. "We're looking for the simple pass, building up from the back third all the way to the attacking third. Rather than playing the kick-and-chase game, we're looking for the long run."
The Vikings (4-1) struck first after a scoreless first 10 minutes. Jackson Sullinger got behind the Blue Jays' defenders and scored his first of two goals on the day.
Then Cameron Mills fought his way to the front of the net, and while surrounded by Blue Jays, deposited the ball into the bottom-left corner to put the Vikings up 2-0 with 22:27 left in the half.
LaBrae increased its lead to 3-0 after Hayden Huncherick converted a penalty kick with 3:55 to play in the first half.
The Blue Jays (1-3) got on the board just over three minutes into the second half. Ben Bacorn made his way down the left sideline before sending the ball to Gavin Murphy in the center of the box. Murphy had enough room to get off a shot that beat LaBrae keeper Connor Geiszler.
Sullinger added one more for the Vikings. He was in front of the net when he got off a shot. The Blue Jays' goalie got a piece of the ball, but it trickled in with 15:30 remaining.
"Jackson-Milton, defensively, they closed out our strikers well," Carmichael said. "People around the ball that left open opportunities that we didn't connect on sometimes, but that's where we need to grow.
"There's a couple balls we got into the back of the net. There's more that we left on the table. That's what we need to work on."
But the Blue Jays got that goal back three minutes later when Bacorn broke free behind the Vikings' defense, making it a 4-2 deficit.
Jackson-Milton tried to apply more pressure after Bacorn's goal. The Jays had a couple more scoring chances, but there wasn't enough time to dig out of the hole.
The start to the season has been a good building block for the Vikings, according to Carmichael.
He said his players have a "dawg" mentality, and he hopes continued improvement throughout the season will lead to quality wins by the end of the year.
"It's just a different mentality. We're still building on it," Carmichael said. "There's still work we need to do, but the result's a result. It wasn't the cleanest result, but we'll take what we can get and work till the next one."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to a technological error, Jackson-Milton head coach Ned Seder's comments after the game could not be transcribed.