Notre Dame hands Perryville its first loss

PERRYVILLE -- Senior Marc Jannin said he and the other members of the first-year Perryville soccer program were excited to play Notre Dame, the two-time defending Class 2 champions. They were looking to gauge where they are as a team with the best in the state.

The Pirates entered Thursday having won their first seven games. And their defense helped keep the game scoreless with Notre Dame through the first half. But the Bulldogs broke through in the second half, netting three goals, including a penalty kick, to hand the Pirates their first loss ever as a program 3-0.

The Bulldogs improved to 9-1 with goalie Ryan Bass increasing his school record in career shutouts to 36. Perryville dropped to 7-1.

"We were looking forward to it," Jannin said about playing the Bulldogs. "They are the state champs. Everybody wants to beat them. It gave us a chance to prove ourselves. I thought we did pretty good the first half. ... I thought we showed them that we can stay with them."

Notre Dame outshot Perryville 22-3 for the game.

The Pirates' three shots all came in the second half. Despite not scoring in the first half, Notre Dame controlled play in the Perryville end.

"They are very good at passing," Jannin said. "We just haven't seen that type of offense before. They just keep moving it in and out, in and out. It was hard to stay with your man. We did pretty good clearing it out in the first half."

With the game scoreless midway through the second half, Notre Dame senior John Unterreiner was pushed from behind by the fullback on a breakaway.

That set up a penalty kick for senior midfielder Josh Robert, who drilled his shot past Pirates goalkeeper Josh Hadler.

"I thought they played pretty well considering they came off a double-overtime [win] last night," Robert said. "And for a first-year program, I was pretty impressed with them. It was exciting. It was a big game -- a district game. They were undefeated. They've beaten a lot of good, quality teams."

Joda Holloway scored Notre Dame's second goal on a header. Brock Dirnberger kicked in the third goal on a pass from Unterreiner.

"They were really motivated," Holloway said. "They wanted to beat us pretty badly, but we were ready for a good game."

Perryville is in Class 2 District 1 with Notre Dame. The other teams in the district are DeSoto, Farmington, Festus, Fredericktown, Hillsboro, North County and Sikeston.

Perryville coach Jerry Fulton said if his team faces Notre Dame in districts, it must play better.

"They're good," Fulton said. "They're the team we've been wanting to play all season to judge where we actually are. I don't think it was a blowout game. I think we played with them nice for a good, long time. And I look forward to meeting them again in districts."

Notre Dame coach Brad Wittenborn said he was not surprised Perryville had won its first seven games, partly due to a strong area youth soccer program and partly because he believes the tougher part of the Pirates' schedule is still ahead.

"The game went about how I would have expected it to go." Wittenborn said.