Notre Dame girls win semifinal showdown

FENTON, Mo. -- One more victory and Notre Dame Regional High School's girls soccer team will join its male counterpart as state champion.

The Bulldogs defeated Kansas City O'Hara 1-0 Friday night in a Class 1 semifinal at the Anheuser-Busch Conference & Sports Centre.

Notre Dame (23-2-1) will play St. Louis John Burroughs (18-6) at 2 p.m. today for the title. Notre Dame's boys soccer team captured a state championship in the fall.

"I just can't believe it," Notre Dame coach Jeff Worley said. "But I just felt like with the group we had coming back, we had a shot at making a run. After the boys team won state, and now for us to have a shot at it, it's unbelievable."

The Bulldogs' Amanda Dirnberger scored the game's only goal about 20 minutes into the first half, off an assist from Brittney Little. Notre Dame's defense did the rest.

"I felt we really controlled the action in the first half and were able to keep a lot of the possession. I thought we could have easily scored another goal or two," Worley said. "We just did a super defensive job up and down the lineup. We didn't give up a lot of shots in regular play, but they had a lot of free kicks and corner kicks."

The best scoring chance for O'Hara (21-9) came about midway through the second half on a penalty kick, but the shot hit the goalpost.

Notre Dame goalkeeper Katie Palmer extended her school record by recording her 17th shutout of the season.

"Katie did a good job coming in and batting some balls out, but they never really had a serious shot on goal," Worley said.

Now the Bulldogs turn their attention to a strong John Burroughs squad.

"They're a very good team, but if we can play the defense the way we did today, we'll give ourselves a good opportunity," Worley said.