ND FOLLOWS BIG WIN WITH A 'SCOREFEST'

Notre Dame is to flukes what Head & Shoulders is to flakes.

After posting a 1-0, double-overtime win over a short-handed Cape Central (3-2) squad on Saturday in the championship game of Notre Dame's Soccerfest, the young Bulldogs figured to be young underdogs when the two teams squared up under the lights Tuesday at Southeast Missouri State's intramural field.

Cape Central had its entire starting unit back, including all-stater Bret McNabb and starting defender Eric Daume, who were both out Saturday. And the Tigers also had three days to think about revenge.

But after a 4-0 victory over their cross-town rivals Tuesday night, Notre Dame removed any perception of being a one-game wonder as the Bulldogs showed a killer instinct, scoring its final three goals in a 12-minute span late in the game.

And Notre Dame coach Brad Wittenborn couldn't have been happier with the way his team played.

"We played so much better tonight than we did Saturday," said Wittenborn. "We're young and we took a big step toward maturing tonight.

"We possessed the ball a lot better. We have a lot of sideline coaches who don't like to see the kids dribble, but we've got some kids who have some skills. My theory is if you can beat your man, it will draw another defender to you and someone else will open up just like basketball; you break down the defense."

Notre Dame (4-0), which has just one senior on its 18-man roster, didn't dominate as much as the score might indicate. But once they got the lead, they knew what to do with it. They made it bigger.

The game was scoreless late in the first half when the ball squirted out of traffic several feet in front of the Tiger goal and seemed to just sit there for sophomore forward Tyler Cuba. Cuba knew what to do with it, depositing it into the left side of the goal. Sophomore forward Adam Prasanphanich was credited with the assist.

Play remained pretty even in the first portion of the second half until the roof caved on the Tigers.

At the 70-minute mark, Scott Wittenborn scored off a pass from Cuba to make it 2-0. About five minutes later, junior midfielder Timmy Wencewicz put a shot past the goalkeeper that senior defender Nick Kapfer finished for good measure for a 3-0 lead. A few minutes before the end of the game, Wencewicz headed in a goal off a corner kick from junior midfielder Shane Kistner.

"I kind of know how Jackson felt the other night (in Cape Central's 8-0 win last Tuesday)," said Cape Central coach Tom Doyle. "Once they got two, it kind of snowballs on you. It's so important to score early. We had to play from behind and we haven't had to do that this year."

Cape Central has allowed five goals this year in five games. Notre Dame is responsible for all of them.

The Tigers, unlike Saturday, had several opportunities to score, but couldn't capitalize.

"I thought both teams played good soccer," said Wittenborn. "I thought it was one of the best games in Southeast Missouri I've ever seen. Both teams showed some skill tonight."

"Overall, we're just not consistent," Doyle said. "We'll take a shot when we shouldn't or we won't shoot when we should. We do some good things, we just need to be more consistent."

Notre Dame's junior varsity (1-0) used two penalty kick goals by David Kiblinger to knock off Cape Central (1-1) 2-0.