Notre Dame 8, Pekin 0

Soccer setback
PEKIN -- Peoria Notre Dame, the cream of the crop when it comes to Central Illinois soccer teams, scored seven first-half goals Tuesday and beat Pekin 8-0 at Coal Miners Park.
"We didn't seem to have a lot of energy tonight," Pekin coach Edgar Sandoval said. "We started off OK, but I think when you're playing a team like Notre Dame it's easy to get down and lose sight of what's going on."
Pekin came out of the gate with some intensity and kept the ball at its end of the field for the first 2 1/2 minutes or so, but Notre Dame worked the ball loose and scored at 2:42. Within eight minutes after that, the Irish led 3-0. And, after a goal in the 22nd minute, Notre Dame added three more goals in a 4 1/2-minute stretch shortly before half-time.
"This is the best program in the area," Sandoval said. "For us to hang around, that's about as much as we can hope for right now. The girls know that. It's nothing to be ashamed of. (Notre Dame) has placed in the top four in the state for the past, well I don't know how many years."
Pekin managed only one shot on goal, but even that was a plus. It was one more legitimate shot attempt more than what they had earlier this season.
"We try to keep them out of the goal as long as we can," Sandoval said. "The first time we kept them out for about 15 minutes. But, I don't think our energy was as good today as it was the first game."

No incidents like when we went to their place, but I didn't expect it. Their team is so skilled and would be a lot of fun to watch if they weren't playing us. Coach Blackford complimented me on our field after the game. That may not seem like a big deal, but I made a real effort before the season to measure out just how big of a field we could get at Coal Miner's... what we had been playing on was short and really narrow. I had park district expand the field to 110 by 70. The max is 120 by 75, but I wasn't sure we had enough room. I'll have to look at it again for next year.