Notre Dame girls soccer team kicks aside Hillsboro in Class 2 sectional

The members of the Notre Dame girls soccer team knew that their opponents had never been in the situation they were in Tuesday night, and they wanted to make sure the Hillsboro players felt the pressure.

"Tonight we really wanted to try to get out to a fast start, at least defensively, to put some pressure on them," Notre Dame coach Jeff Worley said. "It's their first time as a district winner and being at this round, and so we wanted to try to establish some presence."

The Bulldogs (14-8) possessed the ball for almost the entire first half and rolled to a 3-1 victory in the Class 2 sectional round.

"In basketball it would be something like a full-court press," Worley said of his team's tactics to start the match. "We want to try and not give them any easy outs. Even when it looks like, 'Oh, they're going to get to the ball' and that kind of thing, we want to have the opposing team feel the pressure of us coming. Even if you don't get the first one, if it rushes them a little bit maybe they don't get quite as good a ball out. And so the next one should be coming forward, so they don't feel comfortable."

After earning multiple opportunities to score during a first half that was played in the rain, Notre Dame got the lead with 20 minutes, 16 seconds left in the first half when sophomore Jordan Nelson scored.

Notre Dame’s Jordan Nelson, right, tries to drive past Hillsboro’s Megan Steighorst during the Class 2 sectional game Tuesday at Notre Dame Regional High School. The Bulldogs won 3-1. (ADAM VOGLER)

"A ball got played up to one of their last defenders," Nelson said. "She was about to clear it. Coach always says to go as hard as you can, so I went at her. Somehow it hit off of me, and I just followed the ball in."

Nelson recovered the ball that ricocheted off her and moved around the goalkeeper.

"It played out in front of us as a 50-50 ball, and I got the last tap," Nelson said.

The goal not only gave Notre Dame the lead, it placed even more pressure on Hillsboro, which had been dropping players back to keep the Bulldogs from getting in behind its defense.

"It takes the pressure off of you a little bit," Worley said. "The longer they can hold on defending back there, the more confident they can be. And so you can get one like that, and now they know they've got to score, so they have to come out even more and that opens things up a little bit more for us."

Notre Dame’s Jordan Nelson takes a shot during the first half that would result in the Bulldogs’ first goal in their Class 2 sectional game against Hillsboro.

Notre Dame extended its lead to 2-0 with 4:59 left in the first half. Junior Annie Siebert tried to play a ball in from well beyond the box near the sideline. She turned away in disgust after miss-hitting the ball, but it landed in the box and took a wild bounce around the Hillsboro goalkeeper.

"Was that the ball she was trying to hit? No," Worley said. "But we're doing so many good things, you're going to get that sometimes. She was putting her head down, wasn't happy with it at all, but all that stuff that led up to it was very good."

Siebert had routinely provided quality crosses during the half that didn't result in goals before her score.

"You go, 'Certainly one of those is going to go in,'" Worley said of her earlier attempts. "And then one you don't expect to go in actually does."

The Bulldogs continued to dominate the play in the second half and added a third goal with 18:17 remaining when Kaitlin Welter made a spot-on pass to Shelby Beussink, who headed the ball in.

Notre Dame’s Annie Siebert crosses a pass during the Bulldogs’ 3-1 win over the Hillsboro Hawks in the Class 2 sectional Tuesday.

"We've been playing 'World Cup' at the end of practice where we're just serving ball after ball into the box, and they've really been getting after it trying to head the ball," Worley said. "One of the girls said, 'We're going after the ball so hard on corner kicks now, everybody's going to it, so we're almost knocking each other off sometimes.' I'd certainly rather have it that way."

Hillsboro junior Kayla Evans scored her team's only goal with 1:29 left in the game.

Notre Dame will travel to Rosati-Kain for a state quarterfinal on Saturday. Rosati-Kain defeated the Bulldogs 6-1 in the quarterfinals a year ago before finishing second in the state.

"They've got quality players all over the field, and they play a good schedule up there," Worley said. "It's an exciting opportunity. Instead of them coming down here we get to go up there and take it to them on their home field hopefully. We'll see what happens."