Farmington climbs past Notre Dame soccer team in shootout

Golden opportunity after golden opportunity but no luck for either Notre Dame or Farmington.

Finally forced into penalty kicks, the Black Knights emerged victorious.

Farmington turned back the Bulldogs for a 2-1 win Tuesday, converting six of its seven penalty kicks to earn a spot in today's Class 2 District 1 championship game.

"Both teams were really focused on what they needed to be doing," Notre Dame coach Jeff Worley said. "You feel terrible for one person because they're going to hang that on themselves. But that's the hard thing with it. We could have probably played another 30 minutes and we could have still be [tied]. Both teams had good opportunities and just couldn't put it away. We did a lot of great things tonight and had them on the ropes but just couldn't get it in."

Both teams buried their first three penalty kicks before Notre Dame's Brianna Ziegler was stopped on the fourth Bulldogs try.

Notre Dame's Shelby Beussink pushes the ball past Farmington's Makayla Marshall, center, and Kelsey Mengwasser, right, during the first half of their Class 2 District 1 game Tuesday at Notre Dame. (Kristin Eberts)

Farmington wasted the advantage when Paige Gallagher sailed her shot over the crossbar a shot later.

The two teams buried their next two shots before the Bulldogs' Shelby Dix hit a shot over the crossbar.

Brittany Gladbach sealed the win with a shot in the low right corner.

"That was huge," Farmington coach Rusty Sancegraw said. "Even the senior [Gladbach] there at the end that hit that last one even told the referee when she set the ball down, 'I've never taken a PK before,' so she stepped up big and hit one there at the end."

The teams traded golden scoring chances with Notre Dame having the majority of them in the second half and both 15-minute overtime periods.

Farmington found the net first when freshman sensation Taylor Sancegraw took control of a ball near the Bulldogs' box and outmuscled a defender to set up a shot she buried.

It was one of many impressive plays Sancegraw made.

The freshman was Farmington's lone offensive threat, but she kept the Bulldogs on their heels with solid ball control and blazing speed.

"It was big to set that tone," coach Sancegraw said about the early goal. "She didn't play last week against them, so that was a big difference, I thought. I knew she'd be able to hold the ball a little bit better, so with her getting that early goal, I knew she was going to get some chances. Last week we only had one shot against them, so I knew she was going to be able to create chances not only for herself but other people."

Notre Dame shook off a sluggish first half and found the equalizer less than two minutes into the second half when Olivia Roth beat her defender down the sideline and crossed a ball to Abby Boyer, who settled and fired a shot. The shot deflected off the keeper's hands and Shelby Dix weaved her way around a defender to head it in.

"We were a little too anxious early on," Worley said. "We were kind of going into them and up the middle and they would win the ball out and counter us. We wanted to slow the ball down a little bit and play the ball wide and try and get the outside fullbacks involved, and the players really responded."

The Bulldogs had two golden chances in the final minutes of the first overtime but Taylor Rinda's shot inside the box went just left and Anna Wren's strike off a Haley Wengert corner was deflected off the crossbar and out of danger.