Notre Dame soccer smashes Sikeston 8-0

An offensive outburst led by Maya Thebeau's hat trick paced the Notre Dame Bulldogs in an 8-0 win over the Sikeston Bulldogs on Tuesday.

Early on the Sikeston goalkeeper was doing everything possible to keep the Bulldogs in the match as she stymied multiple prime scoring chances.

“We had a game plan, we were just trying to stick to it,” Bulldogs coach Ryan Schweain said. “Sikeston’s goalkeeper made some fantastic saves and we talked at halftime about just sticking with it.”

It felt like just a matter of time before the Bulldogs’ found the back of the net and they finally did in the 15th minute when Maya Thebeau struck to make it 1-0.

“It was huge,” Schweain said of Thebeau’s opening goal. “It calmed the nerves a bit and allowed us to focus on the task at hand.”

Despite trailing by a goal, Sikeston remained in the game until Notre Dame scored twice in the final three minutes of the first half courtesy of Mya Shaffar and Thebeau to take a 3-0 lead into halftime.

“We were able to focus on areas we needed to improve on,” Schweain said.

Just six minutes into the second half, Notre Dame’s Cora Burford joined in on the scoring by finding the back of the net to make it 4-0 Bulldogs.

With two goals in her back pocket already, Thebeau picked up a hat trick just three minutes after Burford scored to put Notre Dame up 5-0.

“She was in the right spots,” Schweain said. “Her teammates were setting her up and she had a couple of nice finishes.”

Thebeau was quick to give credit to her teammates following the big win.

“We pursued with communication and it brought us together,” Thebeau said. “It was really our team altogether.”

Skylar Craft and Eloisa West added late goals to make it 8-0, the eventual final.

What will get lost in the dominant offensive performance was the impressive job Notre Dame did defensively, effectively shutting down any chance of a Sikeston attack.

“We’ve been working on how the defensive side of our line is set up,” Schweain said. “I thought they did much better tonight.”

Tuesday’s contest was a breakout game for the Bulldogs’ offense as they had five different goal scorers in the match.

Sikeston (2-3) will have a quick turnaround when it hosts Kelly at 5 p.m. tomorrow, March 27, at Sikeston High School.

Notre Dame (2-1) has some time off before returning to action at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 2, when the Bulldogs travel to take on Carbondale.