Notre Dame wins and advances to quarterfinals
LAWRENCE >> Although the winning goal didn’t come until the second half, the Notre Dame girls soccer team’s 3-2 Mercer County Tournament victory over Lawrence Thursday was largely secured in the opening 40 minutes.
With a strong wind gusting at its back on the Irish artificial pitch, Lawrence (7-8-1) was able to crack Notre Dame defense for two first half goals.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, all they got out of that was a 2-2 tie at the break. This left Notre Dame (12-4-1) in an excellent position after the restart, and sure enough the Irish used it to their advantage with Paige Foerter scoring the winner.
With the win, seventhseeded Notre Dame advanced to play either third-seeded Pennington or 14th-seeded West Windsor South on Saturday.
“We weren’t part of the toss because we are the home team, but I assume they took the wind in the first half,” said Notre Dame coach Victoria Camera. “When the weather is like this you never know what might happen, but it ended up working out for us.”
It was an inspired effort by underdog Lawrence, which came in as the 11th seed and had recently lost to Notre Dame, 3-1.
Less than 10 minutes into the first half Lawrence struck on a beautiful goal in which Kaitlyn Maloney blasted a free kick into the far corner that gave Notre Dame keeper Nicole Rende no chance.
The goal seemed to wake up Notre Dame, which struck right back with two quick goals. The first was on a pretty header by Morgan Whitlock off a corner by Isabella Pesce. Meghan Tash then scored unassisted on a long leftfooted shot that she lofted over charging Lawrence keeper Gwyneth Moore.
It was an entertaining first half filled with attacking soccer, and as a result Lawrence was able to draw even on a blast by Mackenzie Esposito at the seven minute mark.
That was the end of the scoring until Foerter converted from close in on a cross from Tash with approximately 20 minutes remaining.
In addition to the wind, Notre Dame also marked better as the game went along. As a result Lawrence didn’t look nearly as dangerous in the second half and rarely got anywhere near the Notre Dame goal.
“We made some adjustments at the half,” said Camera. “We would have liked to have done it earlier, but every team is different and it took a while to get it straightened out.
“We talked about getting better communication from our outside backs and outside mids. They did a better job covering for each other after that.”
Lawrence (7-8-1) 2 0 — 2 Notre Dame (12-4-1) 2 1 — 3
Goals: L-Maloney, Esposito. ND-Whitlock, Tash, Foerter. Assists: ND-Pesce, Tash. Shots: L-6. ND-10. Saves: L-Moore 4, ND-Rende 4.