Notre Dame girls soccer team routs Sikeston 7-0

The entire bank of lights in the northwest corner of Notre Dame's soccer field was dark Monday night, not that it mattered much.

Notre Dame goalie Veronica Moore, who spent the second half in dark shadows created by the lack of lights, only touched the ball four times after the intermission and was tested once.

That wasn't the case for Sikeston keeper Annie Ramey, who was pelted with shots by the Notre Dame offense.

Notre Dame scored four goals in the first half and added three in the second half for the 7-0 home win.

"We've got a young group and they're still trying to find themselves," Notre Dame coach Jeff Worley said. "Every game is kind of like a little puzzle and you try to take what the other team is giving and give yourself the best opportunity. So it took a little time to figure out where we needed to go, where we needed to play. Once they started doing that, the momentum started to shift a little bit and you get a goal and you relax a little bit and kind of off you go."

Notre Dame’s Madeline Rosenquist scores past Sikeston goalkeeper Annie Ramey during the first half Monday at Notre Dame. (Laura Simon)

Notre Dame junior Taylor Rinda found herself one-on-one with Ramey twice early in the first half, but one of her shots zipped over the goal, while Ramey gobbled up the second.

"I have a tendency to be hard on myself," Rinda said.

She earned some redemption when she turned in the middle of the box and passed to teammate Madeline Rosenquist, whose low shot beat Ramey. Rinda added a goal late in the first half when she maneuvered to get off a shot in the center of the box and beat Ramey by aiming toward the left post.

"I feel like as soon as we started stringing our passes together and really working as a team, we got together and everyone got on our rhythm," Rinda said.

Shelby Beussink and Abby Boyer both added goals during the final 12 minutes of the first half.

"I think we just had to really focus on talking and realizing where their defense was playing and move a lot and find the other girls on our team," Notre Dame senior Brianne Sanders said.

Notre Dame (2-0) controlled the tempo throughout. It possessed the ball for the vast majority of the game and only allowed Sikeston (0-2) two solid scoring chances.

"They spread the field out very well and they move the ball," Sikeston coach Doyle Noe said. "If you don't have a lot of experience, then other teams can do that. A lot of times you fall into just kind of chasing them moving around. They relaxed and just let the game come to them. That comes with experience. Once you've played quite a bit together, and a lot of those girls have, that just comes natural. You spread the field out and get the other team chasing and opportunities are going to come that way and you possess the ball for most of the game."

Sanders scored a goal and assisted on another in the second half. Miranda Fowler scored off a pass from Sanders, and Rinda added a goal with 1 second left.

"We're all pretty unselfish," Sanders said. "We all look for our teammates and we look for the best open person. Whoever is open, we pass it to them. A lot of that has to do with talking. I think we did that tonight."

Moore shared the shutout with Madison Buelow, who was in goal for the first half.