“It was a tough loss, but at midseason being 7-2-1, playing Collinsville – like I told the girls, we lost 4-1 but I think the game was closer than that,” Hayes said following the Redbirds' Southwestern Conference loss to the Kahoks, dropping AHS to 2-1 in the SWC; Collinsville went to 8-3-1 overall, 4-0 in the league.

“We pulled some girls up from the backfield and they got a late goal,” Hayes said. “It's something that I think, while we rest up over spring break, we can come into the second half of the season kind of being happy where we are. To pull to within one at halftime (Alton trailed 2-1 at the break) and feeling like we were putting them under some pressure and causing them to make some mistakes, that gives our girls some confidence.

“To their credit, that's a team that has been in a lot pressure situations over the last couple of years; those girls are good at handling it – they stepped up and played with some composure and didn't bend. (Collinsville coach Clay) Smith does a fantastic job of getting those girls all on the same page and playing hard together.”

While the loss wasn't what Hayes might have liked, it gives the Redbirds a chance to assess how far they've come, he felt. “For us, we don't like having a loss, but it's a chance for us to see how far we've come and moved forward,” Hayes said. “We still have a ways to go, but I like hearing other coaches in the conference and teams that we've faced say, 'hey, you guys are really stepping up your game and you can do something later on'.”

“It was a good win,” Smith said. “We came out early and got two quick goals and that helps, but like I told the girls, against a team that's offensively talented like Alton, you can't sit back and be happy with those two goals – especially when we're capable of scoring 5-6 goals a game; you have to keep pressing forward, but credit Alton – they made some dynamic runs off the ball, they created some havoc defensively in the first half with some of their runners.

“We were able to clean up in the second half and did a really good job in the second half of staying up with those runners; I'm proud of my defense and my goalkeeper (Morgan Lerch) in the second half, they did a great job.”

The Kahoks grabbed the lead early, thanks to a pair of Courtney Martin goals in the 13^th and 14^th minutes after both teams traded scoring opportunities that just failed to click. Alton's Brianna Hatfield cut the lead in half in the 20^th minute when she fired a shot that got past Lerch.

Smith knew when Hayes stepped into the Redbird coaching job, he was going to do well. “Jeff's a great coach and I knew that going into it he was going to do well with them,” Smith said. “Not only that, the pieces were in place – the coach before Jeff did a great job and all the players were there; it was just a matter of those players maturing a little bit and getting stronger.

“The (SWC), top to bottom, this senior class is loaded with soccer players that can play, in my opinion, with anybody in the state.”

Collinsville regained the two-goal lead in the 50^th minute when Emily Holten put a shot into the back of the net and added an insurance goal in the 76^th minute when Andrea Frerker scored.

Alton next takes on Trinity Catholic of North St. Louis County on the road at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday before a 6:45 p.m. April 24 match at Columbia.