It took the Lady Irish of Notre Dame High School 34 minutes to break into the scoring column against the Lady Trojans of Dyersburg in a first round match of the Tennessee State A-AA tournament played Wednesday afternoon at Chattanooga Christian School. The goal came with 6:12 left to play in the first half when Lexie Pierce placed a corner kick in the sights of Danielle Ciabattone in front of the crease.
That was really all the Lady Irish needed on this bright and sunny afternoon. Coupled with a defensive back line that stood like the Berlin Wall at the height of the Cold War, Notre Dame's offensive unit kept pressure on the outmanned squad from Northwest Tennessee from the opening kick to the very end of the match.
"We were slow in the first half.. I don't know if we were nervous or what," said Lady Irish coach Jim Schermerhorn. Schermerhorn, in his eighth straight visit to the state tourney with Notre Dame, continued, "At the half we talked about things and made some changes. There were some simple mistakes that were hurting us. I told them to pick up our intensity and make connection with our passing. You saw the difference that made," he grinned.
A difference indeed! To start the second half the Lady Irish literally exploded on the Lady Trojans with four goals in 10 minutes.. The first coming in the 42 minute when Gaby Gurrola unleashed a cannon shot on an assist from Kathryn Healy. It was 3-0 in less than a minute when Carey Leiper found Kathryn Healy for a hard shot into goal.
One minute and 18 seconds later Gaby Gurrola passed off to Ciabattone for her second goal of the game. The fourth goal in the 10-minute span came when Gurrola found Leiper in the crease to score with a head shot to run the score to 5-0.
In the 63rd minute Schermerhorn made wholesale substitutions to give his second unit some valuable game experience. There was noticeably no let down in the pressure the Lady irish continued to apply. In fact, in the 75th minute of play Laura Champion found Lacey Mahoney in the crease for strong head shot to leave the scoring at 6-0.
"I was extremely happy with the play of my mid-fielders - Danielle and Gaby - they all did an excellent job in winning the ball on most every attack. You have to give Dyersburg credit, they had to beat someone to get here, after all, this is the state tournament," said Schermerhorn. It was obvious of the frustration of the Dyersburg coach Joy Norman. The Lady Irish thwarted every attempt the Lady Trojans made to get the ball to their star center Jolyta Taylor.
Next up for the Notre Dame booters will be the 18-5-1 Greene Devils from Greeneville, Tn. The Devils were earlier winners over a previously unbeaten team from Page High School in Franklin. the Lady Irish stand at 15-2-3.
First half score: Notre Dame-1, Dyersburg-0
Notre Dame 1 5 = 6
Dyersburg 0 0 = 0