SEYMOUR — It’s been a rough season so far for the Seymour Lady Eagles.

Following last year’s state tournament appearance the Seymour squad was flying high with expectations for the ‘09 campaign. But this summer their head coach took a job at rival Sevier County.

A new coach, Drew Payne, brought in a new style of play, and the girls had a difficult time adjusting, losing their first five games of the young season.

Tuesday night the Lady Eagles put it all behind them with a 7-0 thrashing of IMAC foe Morristown East in front of a friendly home crowd at Benton Householder Field.

Payne was obviously excited to get his first win at the helm of the team.

“It feels good to finally get that monkey off our backs,” he said. “We came ready to play today, and it feels good to finally get that win. We’ve had a really tough opening to the schedule.”

Adding to the difficulty of the first five games, which included two matchups with perennial powers Catholic, Webb and Maryville, was the contrasting style of Payne’s game with that of former coach Bobby Norwood.

“It’s no secret, it’s a little bit of a change of style,” Payne said. “I started out going all the way my style, and over time we’ve met each other halfway. I’ve had to give a little bit, and they’ve had to give a little bit. We finally have come to the point where we’ve got a good formation, we’ve got people where they need to be, and it’s starting to come together.”

It certainly did Tuesday night.

It took the Lady Eagles about 26 minutes to light the scoreboard, but once they’d tallied their first point, the flood gates opened.

Standout forward Courtney Suttles scored the team’s first goal on a breakaway at the 14:32 mark, and then chipped in another beautiful shot just four minutes later — lobbing a 15-yarder over the keeper’s head into the back of the net.

Teammate Lauren Johnson waited just six minutes to up the lead to 3-0, as she pushed it past the keeper from the right side.

As the halftime whistle neared, Suttles completed her hat trick, knocking in her third score fo the night to up the ante to 4-0.

Playing with momentum the Seymour team added two quick scores to start the second half, and put the Lady Hurricanes far in the rearview mirror.

Suttles scored for the fourth time at the 36:06 mark, and Lauren Aucoin added a penalty kick eight minutes later.

Deb Huddleston got the team’s final goal of the night with 12 minutes remaining to make the final tally 7-0.

Kelsey Fleming and Nikki Wiseman combined in goal for the clean sheet.

“We got an advantage by having the middle school football game right after us, that worked in our favor,” Payne said. “It’s really good for the girls to be able to play in front of a crowd like that.”

“We’ve kept plugging, kept working, and we finally came out here and got a big ‘W’ — it feels good.”