Notre Dame boys soccer team gets better of Jackson

It's safe to say that the Notre Dame and Jackson boys soccer teams are matched evenly.

The rivals squared off for the third time this season Wednesday night in Jackson, and Notre Dame came away 2-1 winners for the second time in two weeks.

Jackson prevailed in penalty kicks during the first meeting in early September.

"We always have great games with them," said Notre Dame junior Matthew Parsons, who scored the winning goal with a little more than 10 minutes remaining. "It's always fun to play them."

Notre Dame improved to 15-6, while Jackson fell to 13-5.

"It could have gone either way. It was just a great game," Notre Dame coach Brad Wittenborn said. "It was probably one of the cleaner games you'll see with two intense rivals.

"The one really good thing about this rivalry is that it's so clean and friendly. The kids all get along really well."

Notre Dame grabbed the early lead just 2 minutes, 50 seconds into the game.

Senior Jonathan Lynch, who assisted on both goals, sent a perfect cross into the middle. Senior Matt Ponder converted from point-blank range.

"We knew what they wanted to do -- attack us from the outside," Jackson coach Zack Walton said. "We knew it was coming, but they did it and got up 1-0 on us."

Jackson notched the equalizer about 17 minutes into the half when freshman Ryan Harvey scored after a scramble in front. Several shots were blocked before Harvey converted. It was 1-1 at halftime.

Jackson had a golden opportunity to go ahead about eight minutes into the final period, but junior Keagan Cavanah's blast hit the crossbar.

Both squads missed strong chances before the Bulldogs broke through.

It was Lynch again setting up the goal. His nice centering pass found Parsons in the middle.

"He made a great run through the middle and I just tried to get it to him," Lynch said.

Said Parsons: "I ran diagonal across the box. Jon Lynch gave a great ball to me. The first shot kind of hit somebody's ankle and broke off, but it came right back to me and I put it in."

The Indians had one more solid opportunity to force overtime with just more than a minute left.

But senior Clay Baker's shot off a free kick just outside the box was saved fairly handily by Notre Dame senior keeper James Holloway.

"It was a hard-fought game. Both teams played really well," Lynch said. "It was a great team win. I thought everybody did a great job."

Parsons said scoring so early set the tone for the Bulldogs.

"I thought we came out strong and played a great game," Parsons said.

Wittenborn credited Parsons with having an especially impressive performance.

"Matthew Parsons was probably the player of the game. He was outstanding," Wittenborn said.

Walton felt his club's performance could have been better, but he credited the Bulldogs.

"Our intensity level never got up consistently," Walton said. "Notre Dame did a good job of possession on us."