Central ends regular season by beating ND

The Central boys soccer team put an exclamation point on its first winning season since 2008 by slipping past visiting Notre Dame 2-1 Wednesday night.

The regular-season finale for both squads saw Central beat Notre Dame for the third time this season, including twice on penalty kicks.

"We've had some really good games with them," Central coach Dan Martin said. "Tonight was a very good game by both teams,"

The Tigers improved to 12-9 and the Bulldogs fell to 15-8.

Ethan Groshong scored an unassisted goal midway through the first half to give Central a 1-0 lead.

Notre Dame tied things about eight minutes into the second half on an unassisted goal by Christian Westrich.

Duncan McKinley put the Tigers back on top about four minutes later, with an assist from Chandler Bagley. That goal stood up as the game-winner.

Martin is pleased about the Tigers' winning record -- "It's been a fun ride," he said -- but Central doesn't want to stop there.

Central and Notre Dame, along with Perryville, will compete in next week's tough Class 2 District 1 tournament in Farmington. Four of the five teams have winning records.

Fourth-seeded Notre Dame plays fifth-seeded Farmington at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 29. Third-seeded Central faces second-seeded Sikeston at 7 p.m. Oct. 30. Top-seeded Perryville has a first-round bye.

The championship game is scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 1.

"I think it's wide open," Notre Dame coach Brad Wittenborn said.