Notre Dame waltzes past Sikeston in opening round

Notre Dame left no room for doubt in Monday's Class 1 District 1 first-round soccer game.

The Bulldogs scored six goals in the first half en route to a 9-0 rout of Sikeston. Destiny Dirnberger had a hat track before intermission, and Amanda Dirnberger added two other first-half goals.

"We want to keep building at this point and just try to do things the right way," Notre Dame coach Jeff Worley said. "We had a lot of possession, and we didn't want to be concerned about the score; we wanted to be concerned about doing the right things."

Notre Dame (16-4-2) had plenty of chances to work on its offense. After Amanda Dirnberger scored the first two goals of the game, Destiny Dirnberger added the hat trick and Sierra Ellis scored the last goal of the half. Meridith Medlin, Allison Essner and Rita Jo Dirnberger scored in the second half.

Laura Muir, Katie Palmer and Claudia Brauss all took part in the goalkeeping effort.

Notre Dame's opponent Wednesday in the championship game will be St. Vincent, a 1-0 winner against Perryville in Monday's other semifinal.

Whitney Guth scored the goal for St. Vincent early in the first half with an assist from Stacy Brown.

Michelle Herzog turned back 14 shots to preserve the win for the Squaws (9-15-1).

St. Vincent has lost 1-0 and 3-0 decisions this season to Notre Dame and fell 2-1 last year in the district championship game that was part of the Bulldogs' run to second place in the state tournament.