ND overwhelms field with offense

~ The Bulldogs outscored their opponents 17-2 at the Soccerfest.

The display the Notre Dame boys soccer team put on during its Soccerfest left coach Brad Wittenborn happy that he didn't have to devise a defense against his team.

"We have probably the best shooting team we've ever had," Wittenborn said Saturday. "It's not just one or two guys, its six or eight guys that hit the ball. If I had to coach against us, I don't know who I'd focus on."

Jackson didn't have the answer Saturday in a 4-1 championship game loss.

Poplar Bluff, a 7-0 victim earlier in the tournament, and Sikeston, a 6-1 loser, couldn't stop the Bulldogs either.

"It's early in the year, but I like the way we're kicking it around," Wittenborn said. "We changed our formation and are playing three guys on top, and the three guys we have up there are working well together, and the midfield has held up.

"A lot of this is we're not forcing the play forward all the time. We're spreading the field and spreading the defenses."

Jackson settled for second place for the second straight year.

The Indians ended the tournament even in the scoring margin column, with five goals scored and five allowed.

"We had a good tournament," Indians coach Zack Walton said. "We came out and battled hard with St. Pius, and they're not a bad team at all. We battled hard with Marion and they showed this year they have skills. I think we did all right. This obviously was not our best, but we played pretty well for the first couple of games of the year."