Washington’s girls’ soccer team played its first match in nine days when the Lady Pack hosted Kinston Monday afternoon. The girls showed no signs of rust — at least on the offensive end — when they demolished the Lady Vikings, 10-1, and forced the mercy rule with 20:29 left to play.

It took no time for Washington to strike. Sydney Edwards, who led the Lady Pack with four goals and two assists, found the back of the net not even two minutes into the game. A minute later, Jordan Prescott set up Berenice Chavez for a goal of her own.

Prescott found twine in the fifth minute when she ran down the right side and dinked a shot right past Kinston’s goalkeeper.

Washington’s offense, obviously, had plenty of success. The girls’ counterattack was effective. They also threatened often by setting up outside the penalty area. They found the open player either in the middle or across the box.

In all, the Lady Pack notched eight goals in the first half and notched two more in the second, forcing the early conclusion. Edwards had four goals and Prescott had a hat trick. Chavez, Christina Scott and Sydney Walker all beat the Kinston keeper, too. Scott, Prescott and Edwards all had multiple assists.

“We’ve been doing good,” said coach Ed Rodriguez. “I think we’re top-10 in 2-A in the state in scoring. We’ve just got to get our defense on that same level. … The little lapses are killing us. It’ll get better. It’s getting better already.

“We’re playing well coming from the outside, bringing the ball in and we’ve had a lot of good finishes. That’s gotten a lot better. Just different girls are getting to the point where we can string a few passes in a row. It’s a work in progress, but it’s getting better.”

However, the Lady Pack didn’t play a flawless game. There were a handful of runs that were ruled offside.

“The person in the middle probably could be, but the person on the outside should never be offside,” Rodriguez said. “They’ve got a good view of what’s going on. It’s just not following the play, but we’ll get better at it.”

Defensively, there were also some suspect moments — one of which led to a goal for the outmatched Lady Vikings.

These are all things that Washington will have to work on ahead of its April 5 2-A Eastern Plains Conference opener at Beddingfield. The Lady Bruins are among the league’s top clubs. The Lady Pack has a handful of practices, but the game against Kinston was its last between now and then.

The layoff doesn’t worry Rodriguez or the Lady Pack too much. They proved in the win over Kinston that they could endure a long break and not miss a beat. Granted, the competition level will be higher at Beddingfield, but they’re confident.

“We hadn’t played in almost 10 days because our last game got cancelled,” Rodriguez said. “Then we’ve got almost another two weeks (until Beddingfield). It’s killing us, but it is what it is. … It’s going to be a test.”