To the rest of the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools teams playing, it was the first round of the playoffs.

To St. Aloysius, it was just Tuesday.

Madelyn Polk scored three goals in the first 17 minutes, added a fourth before halftime, and the Lady Flashes cruised to an 8-3 win over Kirk Academy Tuesday in the MAIS Division III girls soccer playoffs.

St. Al tied its season-high for goals allowed, but still had little trouble. It led 6-0 at halftime, outshot Kirk 26-7 in the game, and got goals from five different players.

“The offense was working, the defense was going to the ball, everybody was on it and it showed with the way we were playing,” St. Al coach Scott Mathis said.

The win sends St. Al (12-0) into the semifinals Thursday at 5 p.m. against Starkville Academy, at Balzli Field.

St. Al has made a living off of jumping on teams early, and Tuesday was no exception even if it took until the ninth minute — practically an eternity by its standards.

Polk booted a shot past Kirk keeper Sarah Box into the left side of the net for a 1-0 lead, scored off an assist from Sara McDaniel in the 12th minute, and completed her hat trick with a third goal set up by Anna Kate Doiron in the 17th minute.

The Lady Flashes settled in for a bit after that, but quickly blew it open for real late in the first half. Doiron, Brooklyn Breithaupt and Polk all tallied goals in a two-minute span to take the lead from 3-0 to 6-0 in the blink of an eye.

“I think that pumped us up,” Polk said of her early flurry. “Usually when we’re up like that we think we have it and we don’t do as good as we should.”

Anna Beauchamp scored on a breakaway early in the second half to make it 7-0, but the Lady Flashes got a bit sloppy on the defensive end after that.

Kirk (11-5) rallied for three goals in the last 20 minutes to make the score a little more respectable. It never got closer than four goals before McDaniel drove home an exclamation point score in the final minute.

Although giving up three goals in a 16-minute span seems like it might be cause for concern, Mathis chalked it up to fatigue.

“I’m worried about the players we got hurt, not their play,” Mathis said. “They were worn out, and sometimes you have that. We were playing on a bigger field than we’ve played on all year, and this team ran them.”

Caroline Goss, Leggett Steed and Juli Dipaolo all scored goals for Kirk, and Box made 11 saves.

McDaniel finished with a goal and two assists for St. Al. Doiron and Breithaupt had a goal and an assist, and Beauchamp scored once. Polk finished with four goals.

“She’s so overlooked,” Mathis said of Polk, an eighth-grader. “When she jumps out there, people don’t see anything. When you can have a true lefty who can switch to her right foot and then back to her left, that’s something.”

Up next

Starkville Academy at St. Aloysius

Thursday, 5 p.m.

MAIS Division III girls soccer semifinals