ND girls reel off six goals

~ The Bulldogs surrendered the game's first goal, but defeated St. Vincent 6-1.

Notre Dame's Meghan Dohogne did not celebrate right away after she scored on a shot that she blooped into the net just over the reach of St. Vincent keeper Anne Steele.

Dohogne thought her shot had sailed above the crossbar and gotten tangled in the backside of the net. Her teammates did too, as one yelled, "It's over."

"I thought it went over and I wasn't expecting it to go in," Dohogne said. "I was looking at it and nobody thought it went in."

The goal by Dohogne, a midfielder, came two minutes into the second half. It helped build a two-goal lead for the Bulldogs and it also sparked a rally as Notre Dame went on to score three more times early in the second half.

St Vincent's Storm French, left, and Notre Dame's Mindy Siebert fight for the ball during the second half Tuesday at Notre Dame. (ELIZABETH DODD ~ edodd@semissourian.com)

Dohogne scored twice -- her first two goals of this season -- and added an assist as Notre Dame routed St. Vincent 6-1 at Notre Dame Regional High School on Tuesday.

"She always looks surprised when she scores," Notre Dame coach Jeff Worley said about Dohogne. "She works so hard out on the field. She's very fit and she works to keep everybody involved in the play. And so she doesn't think of herself as a scorer."

Notre Dame (6-2), which plays rival Central tonight on the road, fell behind 1-0 against the Indians (5-2) just 6 minutes into the contest when Liz Brueckner scored.

"It was kind of like a flashback to when we got down against Carbondale," Dohogne said. "We just had to work hard and we did. We passed really well."

Some strong passing led to the tying goal by Notre Dame forward Mindy Siebert. Anna Wren then added a goal to help the Bulldogs take a 2-1 lead before halftime.

"I think we worked the ball around real well," Siebert said. "Our passes finally came together and we just found each other at the right times. ... We just finally gelled as a team this game. Our passing was really good. Our first couple games our passing just wasn't there."

Taylor Sanders and Alex Fowler each scored second-half goals for Notre Dame, which was shut out in a double-overtime loss to Jackson last week and had lost two straight games before Tuesday.

"They do such a good job of spreading the field," St. Vincent coach Dustin Wengert said about Notre Dame. "And then once they do that, they do such a good job of changing fields on you that sometimes it feels like your girls are in position, but the next thing you know, [Notre Dame] has got two or three girls running onto a ball and all of a sudden you're out of position and you're outnumbered."

Sophomore Brianna Ziegler made her first start in net for the Bulldogs this season. She had been playing defender before Tuesday because she tore a thumb ligament.

"She did really good back," Sanders said about Ziegler. "Brianna has been doing really good. She's been working extra time."

Worley said Ziegler put in a great deal of extra work in the offseason to prepare to be the starting keeper.

"She did extra training and that kind of stuff so you really felt bad for her to have the injury early on," Worley said.

In past years, Notre Dame and St. Vincent were in the same district. But the Missouri State High School Activities Association added a third class in girls soccer this year. Notre Dame, along with Perryville, moved up to Class 2, while St. Vincent remained in Class 1.

"This is the type of competition we're going to see after district play and in district play," Wengert said. "It's a long season. This is only our second loss and we lost to two of probably the tougher teams in the state of Missouri -- Jackson 1-0 -- and then tonight against Notre Dame. So definitely the top two teams probably in Southeast Missouri we lost to. But I'll take our chances. We play Notre Dame again later in the year and we'll see where we are after that."

As for Notre Dame, it hopes its offense will remain hot tonight against Central.

"We're pretty excited for Cape because Cape and Notre Dame are pretty big rivals," Sanders said. "We have a lot of friends on Cape."