At halftime of a scoreless match, Mankato East coach Metone Wamma wasn’t feeling too well.

“I was very concerned,” Wamma said. “We were very sluggish in the first. We know we are better than how we played in the first half.”

The aggressive Cougars finally found the net, defeating Mankato Loyola/Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial 3-0 in the opening round of the Section 2A girls soccer tournament Monday at Thomas O. Anderson field. Fourth-seeded East defeated Loyola/LCWM 2-1 in overtime just a week ago.

“We knew we could play better than we did in the first half,” junior Jill Kroeger said. “We just all stepped up. We’re normally a second-half team.”

Kroeger scored the first goal at just over 13 minutes remaining in the match. She directed a kick at the Crusaders’ goalkeeper, then when the ball popped loose, she buried the short-range shot.

“We weren’t playing as a team in the first half,” Kroeger said. “In the second half, we all played together.”

After the goal, Loyola/LCWM’s Nicole Evan had two good scoring chances, with one shot sailing wide and another that had to be saved by goalkeeper Sarah Brozik. Evan later had another good scoring chance in which Brozik had to be sharp.

At 13:43, sophomore Ashleigh Pischke, who played limited minutes because of injury, scored to make it 2-0, and five minutes later scored for a 3-0 lead.

“East just wanted it more,” Loyola/LCWM coach Jeffrey Freund said. “East played aggressively, they passed better, they controlled the ball. We were chasing the ball.”

The Crusaders’ season ends at 1-14.

East (9-7-2) plays in the section quarterfinals Thursday at 4:30 p.m., against No. 12-seed Glencoe-Silver Lake, at Thomas O. Anderson field. Glencoe-Silver Lake upset fifth-seeded Fairmont 7-4 on Monday.