East Lansing's Jessica Stanton and Pioneer's Lauren Fearday fight for control of the ball during the first half of Thursday night's game at Pioneer. (Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com)

This early in the season, Lumumba Shabazz isn't yet willing to put too much stock in any outing - regardless of the outcome. Two games in, there's still plenty the Pioneer High School girls soccer coach needs to discover about his team before he's ready to promote the Pioneers as legitimate contenders for a Southeastern Conference championship. For starters, though, a 4-0 shutout of visiting East Lansing in Pioneer's home opener Thursday night didn't give Shabazz much to complain about.

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Pioneer (1-0-1) controlled the tempo for the majority of the night, using well-executed play to set up scoring chances while limiting the opportunities East Lansing got. The Pioneers got scoring from four different players, proving they won't be an easy team to prepare for as the season progresses. Pioneer's playmakers demonstrated wise decision-making in setting chances up, showing Shabazz the intelligence and instincts his players have in their arsenal. "I think we played phenomenal for our second game," said senior midfielder Lauren Fearday, who gave Pioneer an early 1-0 lead just more than four minutes into the first half. "We just moved the ball between us, we got some nice crosses and finished most of of our opportunities." Two of Pioneer's four goals came on strong finishes as Lucy Krebsbach staked the Pioneers to a 3-0 lead, heading in a perfect cross late in the first half. Junior defender Cara Pardon put a capper on the victory 6:29 into the second half, again taking a pass before lobbing a shot into the corner of the net. Olivia Clark also registered a goal in the Pioneer victory. For all that went right, though, an early shutout doesn't necessarily mean Pioneer is entirely prepared for what it will face ahead. Shabazz said he would have liked to see more patience offensively, especially after the Pioneers built a commanding 4-0 lead. But the little things that concerned him weren't enough for him for taking the win for what it was: A positive building block to move on from as the challenges get tougher the rest of the way. "It was a good exercise, but hopefully, we can build on the lessons of it," he said. "It's a long season and at the same time, it comes pretty quickly so hopefully, we can do it when it counts."

Jeff Arnold covers sports for AnnArbor.com and can be reached at (734) 623-2554 or by e-mail at jeffarnold@annarbor.com.