Game 7 - Notre Dame

PEORIA -- Sam Cohen registered a hat trick as Notre Dame registered 49 shots on goal and defeated Pekin 6-0 in a Mid-State 6 Conference soccer match.

The Dragons (2-4-1, 2-3-1) kept the first place Irish (11-1-1, 6-0) at bay for the first 13 minutes of the game as Jen Adkison made several beautiful saves early on her way to 36 for the game.

"Natalie Kahn had five (goals) on us the first time we met. She had one this time,'' Pekin coach Edgar Sandoval said. " Our goal was to make someone else do the scoring and obviously they have the weapons to do so.''

Pekin next visits Limestone Friday in a 4:30 p.m. non-conference match.

I wanted to ease Bree back into playing shape, so as a sophomore who had yet to play a varsity contest, I had her in the JV game at Notre Dame. She actually got several good shots on goal which is probably more than we ever had in any game against the Irish.

The varsity game went as you'd expect. Notre Dame was getting shot after shot after shot. But the great thing for us was Jen was stopping them. A lot of them. Yes, they ended up scoring six and shutting us out. By their count she ended with 26 saves, the twelth highest total in IHSA history.

The game was marred by continued poor treatment from a group of Notre Dame fans. This seems to happen every year and according to other coaches it happens at their games too. It got so bad, the ref actually had to stop the game for a moment. Here's the thing. Their program is hands down the best in the area and I like to hold them up as an example of how you play good soccer. But when you have situations like this one, that gets harder to do.

I don't know if their administration knows or even cares that this goes on. It has me fairly disappointed, as I went to a Catholic high school and this isn't what it is about. Yet, that's the impression all these girls from Morton to Pekin to Peoria get from playing in these games. And maybe no one thinks it matters, but I've seen how religous based school struggle to make ends meet and what's happening is future area moms are being turned off.