Strolling along the sideline of Baylor's soccer pitch Buddy Edging, the TSSAA Supervisor of Soccer Officials, explained, "Soccer is a game of angles and your perception of that angle from where you see it." The Notre Dame Lady Irish saw two angles with apparent 20/20 vision in their Region 4 A/AA rematch with Chattanooga Christian School tonight, winning a hard fought match 2-0 in front a large and boisterous crowd from both schools.
These two teams usually see each other at least three times each season“ season, district and region. So far this year the Lady Irish are three and oh with a possibility of seeing the Lady Chargers in the finals of the state tournament. And while CCS head coach Cal Sneller laughingly said, "I really wouldn't mind seeing someone else in that match if we're fortunate enough to make it through." One has to wonder if he might be just a tad serious about that.
In his pre-game comments Notre Dame Head coach Jim Schermerhorn said, "I just hope we can step up and play again. We came out of Tuesday's game with Dekalb County healthy. Seeing a team three times in a season gets tougher and tougher - it's hard to win because each team knows the other so well by now."
His counterpart from CCS explained, "The goal is to keep people healthy for Saturday's sub-state match-ups. The girls are ready, focused; the kids are all going to play, everyone has to get ready to play." He continued, "Both teams go on regardless of who wins tonight; we just want it to end with no injuries for either team.
Unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way for the Lady Chargers. Early in the match junior Tiffany Sullivan went down with an ankle injury and did not return. According to Coach Sneller, "She was anxious to get back in and wanted to play, but it just didn't make sense to risk any further damage with where we are season-wise." Sullivan will be day-to-day leading up to Saturday night's match.
As in their district championship match, Notre Dame was on the attack early with the CCS defense frustrating them at every opportunity. Then In the 12th minute of play Danielle Ciabattone made good off of a corner kick by Gaby Gurrola for the first Lady Irish score. A goal described as "brilliant" by Sneller.
Kathryn Healy on an assist from Carey Leiper
Exactly five minutes later at 17:30 into the match, Lady Irish forward Kathryn Healy scored on a left to right cross by Carey Leiper to close out the night's scoring and give Notre Dame a 2-0 lead and the region championship.
Coach Shermerhorn said of Ciabattone, "If we lose the ball, she goes and brings it right back“ every time. She is a team captain and a real leader of this team." Of another team captain, he said, "Carey Leiper is one of the best“ a real set-up player with not an ounce of selfishness in her bones." When asked about his team's vagabond tribulations in moving from home field to home field in the play-offs, the likable coach replied, "We're sort of like Rocky in that respect. We have nothing to work with but yet, here we are!" he laughed.
The Notre Dame girls move on to face Silverdale Baptist Academy and CCS will play at Chattanooga School for the Arts & Sciences.
Score at half-time: ND 2; CCS 0
Shots on goal: ND 9; CCS 2
Saves: Courter (ND) 1; Thurman 1, Stone 4 (CCS)
(Dennis Norwood can be contacted at ladyvols56@att.net)