Boy, did they do just that.

THS easily defeated Bishop Ward in a first-round regional playoff match, 10-0.

Seever said the Cyclones were more than shorthanded, because all of the team’s seniors missed the match.

With that in mind, Tonganoxie (6-10) played its starters early on as it took control, but the rout continued when Seever emptied his bench midway through the first half.

Shyanne Gergick was the first to score for THS and Madison Simmons extended the Chieftains’ lead to 2-0. Then, Ashley Kotowske scored two goals and Molly Welsh followed with a pair of scores of her own, getting one on a corner kick.

Kotowske scored again to earn a hat trick and put THS up 7-0 before Alyssa Miller scored the home team’s final goal of the first half.

Although Tonganoxie didn’t score once in the first 20 minutes of the second half — which Seever said might have been a direct result of his uninspiring halftime speech that amounted to “hey, don’t get hurt and let’s get out of here” — Miller scored twice in a four-minute span to get a hat trick and end the match.

Carson Simmons had three assists in the shutout. Alissa Donnelly, Emily Soetaert and Welsh had one assist apiece.

By the end of the lopsided affair, the Chieftains had amassed 34 shots.

“We were just plugging away all day,” Seever said.

Good attacks and ball movement made the match easier, he added, and enabled THS to win by 10 against Ward, instead of six, like it did twice in the regular season.

“It was good to get a game like this where we put the result up that I thought we could before,” Seever said.

Tonganoxie’s third victory over Ward advances the team to a 7 p.m. Thursday matchup with No. 3 seed Kansas City Christian (8-7) at Overland Park Soccer Complex.

The Chieftains lost an April 21 road match with KCC, 3-0.

The winner of Thursday’s match advances out of Northeast Regional No. 3 and moves on to the state quarterfinals.