Jackson soccer team blanks Notre Dame

Jackson didn't let Notre Dame breathe.

The Indians suffocated the Bulldogs in a total team effort, posting a 5-0 home victory Tuesday night in girls soccer action.

"High pressure always makes a team panic," Jackson junior Erin Eakens said. "Even a good team like Notre Dame, as long as you keep good pressure on them, it makes any team panic."

Jackson certainly kept good pressure on the visiting Bulldogs.

Notre Dame (6-5) managed few shots and had no good scoring opportunities.

Jackson's Jordan Myer kicks the ball while being guarded by Notre Dame's Allyson Bradshaw during Tuesday's game in Jackson. (Kristin Eberts)

"Their pressure on their attack has a lot to do with their defense," Notre Dame coach Jeff Worley said. "With their team speed, you're trying to cover players making runs, so the offensive runs they're making, you're expending a lot of energy to try and sort that out. It affects your ability as a team to get back out and go on an attack yourself. A good offense will feed you defensively. A good defense feeds you offensively, and they did both things extremely well."

The Indians (12-1) took advantage of their high-pressure defense by creating turnovers and countering with several scoring opportunities.

The first goal came just five minutes into the game when Eakens beat her defender to the end line, cut it back and fired a cross that Alex Sotak finished.

"It was real nice," Eakens said about the early goal. "We're always pumped to play a good team like Notre Dame, and both teams are extremely motivated when we're facing each other. So to get a goal in that first five minutes, it really gets everybody going."

Jackson wasted little time adding to its lead.

Eakens beat her defender again down the left side and found a wide open Hailey Mouser. The freshman rifled a shot off the crossbar and down into the net at the 21-minute mark.

It was another one of Eakens' four assists in the game.

"We've been working on that with her," Jackson co-coach Justin McMullen said. "She's a very good one-on-one player, and we've been working on her keeping her head up and finding open teammates because she draws the defense, which frees up everybody."

The Indians made it 3-0 with five minutes to play in the half when Eakens fed Sotak again for a goal.

Jackson again capitalized on its solid defense with less than two minutes to play when the Indians forced a turnover near midfield and fired a strike to a sprinting Sotak, who tapped it past a charging keeper to make it 3-0.

"The last couple of weeks we've pretty much been focusing on defensive pressure and communication," McMullen said. "Good defense leads to good offense. That's been our focal point in regards to training. Most of our offense came off applying pressure defense. It frees up our offense."

Eakens added: "We were trying to move the ball around and trying to get it to our outside [midfielders] and take it down the line because usually that works well to help spread things out over all of the field and get some runs going into the middle."

The second half provided little relief for the Bulldogs.

Jackson made it 5-0 five minutes into the half.

Eakens used a flip-throw deep in Notre Dame territory to launch a strike to Kasey Crowden, who deflected it into the back of the net.

"I was highly motivated," Eakens said. "It's Notre Dame. When we're talking, it's easy to find an open person. Good communication is key."

The goal clearly deflated the Bulldogs.

"Being able to make strong, aggressive runs out of the midfield and center back line, you don't see very many teams make the run as long and with as much aggressiveness as they do," Worley said. "You think you have everybody covered and then one or two players bolt out of their midfield or back lines ... It gets you all out of shape and that's when you really get in trouble."

Notre Dame failed to create any serious scoring chances in either half, but the Bulldogs limited Jackson after the intermission.

"We did a better job of recognizing where the runs were coming from so we were able to take away a few opportunities," Worley said. "But we still had to really work hard to close things up. The constant pressure was still always there, but we did a better job."