Notre Dame soccer team marches into Class 2 quarterfinals

IMPERIAL, Mo. -- Throughout Notre Dame's Class 2 state sectional soccer game against Windsor on Tuesday, coach Jeff Worley urged his players to relax and let the game come to them.

When the Owls erased the Bulldogs' one-goal lead with nine minutes remaining in the game, a panic could've set in.

Instead, the Bulldogs heeded their coach's advice and scored twice in the final six minutes to secure a 3-1 victory.

"I think the last five minutes we kind of calmed down," Notre Dame's MacKenzie McDaniel said. "Because after that handball we realized we needed to calm down and we needed a goal or we might not advance."

Notre Dame held a 1-0 lead when McDaniel scored with 18 minutes, 39 seconds remaining in the first half, and maintained its lead until less than 10 minutes remained in the game.

Senior Madeline Rosenquist was whistled for a handball with 9:10 to play and Windsor was awarded a free kick from 20 yards out directly in front of Notre Dame's goal.

Windsor's Amanda Burtnett sent the ball to the low, right corner of the net past Notre Dame goalie Madison Buelow to tie the game.

"Right when I did that I was like, 'If they score, this is all on me,'" Rosenquist said. "And I'm one of those people who like gets down on myself really easily. So I was like, 'If they score, it's over, it's my fault.' Then they did and I shut down for a few minutes, and then somewhere along I was like, 'I can't disappoint my coaches. I can't disappoint my team. I'm going to get this back and we are going to win this game.' By some miracle of God it happened."

Junior Jordan Nelson dribbled parallel to the end line on the right side of the goal and played a ball in front of the net that Rosenquist one-touched into the goal to put the Bulldogs back on top 2-1 with 6:03 remaining.

"I saw a lane and nobody was going so I thought, 'Here's a chance. I can go,'" Rosenquist said. "Jordan was running perfect, she played a perfect ball in and I just tapped it right in. I came over and just burst into tears. It was just a great moment."

It took less than three minutes for the Bulldogs to rebound from the game-tying goal before Rosenquist scored.

"I knew we would get more chances," Notre Dame coach Jeff Worley said. "It's a matter of how quickly we can get composed and go back to attack. Thankfully with as many juniors and seniors as we have out on the field, they did that really quickly."

Nelson cemented Notre Dame's win with a goal with 59 seconds left in the game. She received the ball on a throw-in on the left sideline and was able to push it past her defender, cut in toward the goal and slipped it past the goalkeeper into the right side of the net for the final score.

The Bulldogs had several chances to score earlier in the game, but between their own over-excitement, adjusting to playing on a turf field and Windsor's defense, they were unable to capitalize more often.

"We had a lot of trouble getting settled in early on -- I think the excitement of just playing on this level, this stage," Worley said. "We missed some opportunities and got a little flustered. The real positive is that when we challenged them to reel it back in and dial it back in, they were able to do that.

"Once we settled down -- we were going too fast -- once we slowed down the game came to us, we got more chances. We still didn't finish as many as we would like, but it really took the pressure off of us, you know, having to defend constantly, cut out their counter-attack and really got us settled in, especially the second half."

The Bulldogs (19-1-1) host Rosati-Kain in a quarterfinal Saturday.

Rosati-Kain (13-13) has ended Notre Dame's season in the quarterfinal round the past two seasons -- 2-0 in 2013 and 6-1 in 2012.

"Hopefully third time's a charm and we can get it done," McDaniel said. "I'm excited."